Phishing Scam Lottery Email from "UK National Lottery" - Beware!

If you receive an email claiming you won the lottery, you might automatically delete it. Then again, you might be tempted to innocently inquire, a set-up for identity theft. Beware! That "UK National Lottery" email is a scam!

We all want to know how to win the lottery, don't we? After all, easy money is everyone's dream? What if we could find someone who would offer us easy money online, with no credit check, easy approval processes, or few loan requirements. And, wouldn't be even better if we won the lottery and all of our financial woes went right out the window?

Today's internet predators know that we, the industrialized citizens of the world, are very worried about our finances right now. While all of us are actually rich in comparison to other parts of the world, we still worry about how we will pay our bills, feed our families, or even drive to work the next day. These email scam artists know that we are vulnerable and, because of this vulnerability, send us enticing emails claiming that we have won the lottery, have been approved for an easy online loan, can get easy money via international inheritance claims, and more. Sadly, many people fall prey to these shallow promises and, in turn, become victims of identity theft or money laundering.

Below is an example of one of these "Too Good to be True" lottery email messages. Don't let these identity theft criminals from "UK National Lottery" scam you, get their greedy paws on your personal information, hard drive, or hard earned cash! If you get an email like the one below, delete it immediately! Don't click on any links, don't forward it, and for goodness sakes, don't reply!

The entire scam email from "UK National Lottery" has been copied and pasted here for your educational purposes only. Please do not attempt to communicate with anyone related to this email, as you will in turn become their latest victim of identity theft, international money laundering fraud, or worse!

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Subject: Dear Winner
From: "Francisco Charles Teixeira de Vasconcelos" charles@cefet-ce.br
To: undisclosed-recipients
UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
Victoria Square House
Birmingham B2 4BP
Ref:ZA/144132/1211
BATCH:15/623/UK

Dear Winner,

We wish to inform you of the lottery draws held on the 30 October 2010 to declare the winners of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY. This lottery scheme was created to
bring awareness to the world being that United Kingdom is hosting the next Olympics in 2012.

Yourself, attached to Ticket number 356-00098-3211-222, with Serial number 818-09 drew the lucky numbers 67-99-777963, and consequently won the lottery through a computer ballot system and your email address was gotten through United Kingdom Information Network Online (U.K.I.N.O) which is affiliated with the internet.

You have therefore been approved for a lump sum payment of £1,000,000.00 (i.e One Million United Kingdom Pounds), out in cash credited to file Ref:ZA/144132/1211 this is from total prize money of £20,000,000.00(Twenty Million Pounds Sterling) shared among the 20 international winners in this category.

All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 17,000 names from Australia, New Zealand, North America, South America, Europe and Middle East and Asia as part of our International Promotions Program, which is conducted monthly.

To begin your claim process, please contact your claims agent with details below and also provide him with the requested information so that he can Expedite the processing of your claims.

NAME ..........................
COUNTRY..........................
ADDRESS..............................
STATE/PROV/CITY..........................
ZIP/POSTAL/CODE.................................
CELL PHONE...................................
OCCUPATION & AGE..........................
EMAIL............................
REFERENCE NUMBER..............................
BATCH NUMBER................................

To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your reference/batch numbers to any correspondences with us or our designated agent.Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this UK NATIONAL LOTTERY.

Thank You for being part of our promotional lottery program.

Sincerely,
Eric Smith
Email:ukclaimagent2010@yahoo.co.uk
CPA On-line Ltd.
CPA House,London W6 0RX, (registered no.2096020)
Claims Verification Department.

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END FAKE LOTTERY WINNER EMAIL FROM UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
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We'd all like to believe that we won the lottery, wouldn't we? So how can we know that this is a fake email, and not a legitimate one?

Notice how the English grammar is not very good, although it 'supposedly' comes from an executive officer of a UK based lottery commission. Remember, England is a country where the public speaks English!

We know that this is a fraudulent lottery email for the following reasons:

1. They don't know my name
2. They are from a foreign country
3. They are offering massive amounts of money, out of the blue, without any action on my part
4. They have unverifiable contact and personal information
5. They write with bad English spelling and grammar
6. They ask for personal information, which can be used for identity theft or worse

Finally, I looked up the phone number given in this email by doing a quick Google search. Interestingly, the phone number is supposedly based in either the UK or Mann Isle, but the number is 'unpublished'. In other words, its definetely NOT a UK National Lottery (or any other legitimate company) phone number.

Ironically, on the same day, I also received another phishing / 419 email from the same sender (yes, the exact same email address!). However, the second email made an offer for a quick approval, easy online loan. If you'd like to see the offending online loan offer scam, feel free to read it for yourself here:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5978832/scam_emails_offer_easy_approval_loans.html?cat=2

It is important to remember that, thanks to the wide spread use of internet based phone communications software and devices, anyone can set up his or her phone number to be based anywhere in the world. For example, when using Skype I can choose to make my phone number appear to be originating from Pakistan even though I'm in the USA.

If you would like to know more about how to identify fake, phishing, or scam emails, please see my article detailing what you should look for, found at the following location:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5950174/6_tips_to_avoid_email_scams_and_financial.html?cat=3