Some scams are just so obvious (or at least should be) and this one is no exception. Just look at the vast amount of spelling mistakes, poor grammar and the feeble attempt to part you and your money. When reading such an email – like all scam emails – look for the most obvious clues. Putting aside the pathetic attempt at grammar and spelling, we have a scam claiming that you won a lottery held by Western Union. Western Union does not hold any such lottery and you would find that out with just a couple minutes on the Western Union website. And even if there were such a lottery that you didn’t enter, they don’t even know your real name but claim you as a winner – that’s when you know something is up.

If you get the following scam email just delete it and move on. Well, get a chuckle out of how poorly crafted it is before deleting if you like – it’s got to be good for something.

Hello Dear Valuable Client,

Am peter king of western union money transfer manager in west africa am here to inform you that you were been emerge as one of the 5 lucky winner of the 2010/2011 award winning notification,in which your email address was randomly selected through our microsoft computer database system;this qualify you to be among the 5 lucky winner so for this i congratulate you for this huge priveledge you have.

I want you to bear it in mind that your fund money is $3.6m usd and the United Nation (UN),Federal Bereau Investigation (FBI) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were aware and supported this offer so there is no need for you to doubt this and also you need to be very careful if someone told you such things like this please do ignore it because they are scammer and fraudlers and no one as the access to this award except me,so right now your money is available for pick up and we need your quick urgent response in as to send you a hardcopy consignment to your domain.

below are the items required from you in as to enhance the consignment get to your domain asap without any delay from us here.

FULL NAME:..

FULL ADDRESS:…

OCCUPATION:…

INT’L PASSPORTY OR IDENTITY:…

HOME & OFFICE NUMBER:……

Note that you are given 100% assurance by the above mentioned international security agent to make sure that this money get to you without any delay from us here,so once all this is been receive by you it will take not less than 4 hours while your money will get to your door step.

I will be strongly waiting to hear from soonest,have a great day and once again i congratulate you for this great priveledge you have.

Best Regard,

PETER KING

W.U.M.T MANAGER.

Welcome to western union money transfer inc is a post from: Get Rich Fast

Nobody from the FBI is going to send a Canadian – or anyone for that matter – an email telling them that an investigation has brought to them lottery winnings from a lottery they never even entered. Think about that – how do you win a lottery you never even entered? Do you even know of such a lottery anywhere in the world? Of course you don’t because they don’t exist. Lotteries are heavily overseen via legal institutions, and not rogue entities sending money to people from around the world. Lotteries cost money to run – and obviously for the prizes, so if you didn’t buy a ticket, and nobody else did, how did they find this mysterious money to give away!

This is the email sent to us. Yours may differ slightly.

Anti-Terrorist and International Fraud Division.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation.
Seattle, Washington.
Telephone Number : (206) 973-2572

ATTN: BENEFICIARY

This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly completed an Investigation with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you legally won the sum of $800,000.00 USD from a Lottery Company outside the United States of America. During our investigation we discovered that your e-mail won the money from an Online Balloting System and we have authorized this winning to be paid to you via a Certified Cashier’s Check.

Normally, it will take up to 10 business days for an International Check to be cashed by your local bank. We have successfully notified this company on your behalf that funds are to be drawn from a registered bank within the United States Of America so as to enable you cash the check instantly without any delay, henceforth the stated amount of $800,000.00 USD has been deposited with Bank Of America.

We have completed this investigation and you are hereby approved to receive the winning prize as we have verified the entire transaction to be Safe and 100% risk free, due to the fact that the funds have been deposited at Bank Of America you will be required to settle the following bills directly to the Lottery Agent in-charge of this transaction whom is located in Lagos, Nigeria. According to our discoveries, you were required to pay for the following -

(1) Deposit Fee’s ( Fee’s paid by the company for the deposit into an American Bank which is – Bank Of America )
(2) Cashier’s Check Conversion Fee ( Fee for converting the Wire Transfer payment into a Certified Cashier’s Check )
(3) Shipping Fee’s ( This is the charge for shipping the Cashier’s Check to your home address )

The total amount for everything is $500.00 (Five Hundred-US Dollars). We have tried our possible best to indicate that this $500.00 should be deducted from your winning prize but we found out that the funds have already been deposited at Bank Of America and cannot be accessed by anyone apart from you the winner, therefore you will be required to pay the required fee’s to the Agent in-charge of this transaction via Western Union Money Transfer Or Money Gram.

In order to proceed with this transaction, you will be required to contact the agent in-charge ( Mr. Benson Edward ) via e-mail. Kindly look below to find appropriate contact information:

CONTACT AGENT NAME: MR. BENSON EDWARD

E-MAIL ADDRESS: bensonedward08@gala.net

TELEPHONE NUMBER : +234-703-586-0779

You will be required to e-mail him with the following information:

FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
ZIP CODE:
DIRECT CONTACT NUMBER:

You will also be required to request Western Union details on how to send the required $500.00 in order to immediately ship your prize of $800,000.00 USD via Certified Cashier’s Check drawn from Bank Of America, also include the following transaction code in order for him to immediately identify this transaction : EA2948-910.

This letter will serve as proof that the Federal Bureau Of Investigation is authorizing you to pay the required $500.00 ONLY to Mr. Benson Edward via information in which he shall send to you, if you do not receive your winning prize of $800,000.00 we shall be held responsible for the loss and this shall invite a penalty of $3,000 which will be made PAYABLE ONLY to you (The Winner).

Please find below an authorized signature which has been signed by the FBI Director- Robert Mueller, also below is the FBI NSB (National Security

FBI Director
Robert Mueller.
Authorized Signature

NSB SEAL ABOVE
NOTE: In order to ensure your check gets delivered to you ASAP, you are advised to immediately contact Mr. Benson Edward via contact information provided above and make the required payment of $500.00 to information in which he shall provide to you.

FBI Lottery Money is a post from: Get Rich Fast

In this particular lottery scam, the scammers are attempting to make their victim think that their contact information is up to snuff by not using a yahoo, Google or other free email service. They attempt to use a known company’s email address, and if it is used, it will not work. But the scammers are counting on people just hitting the reply button instead – which leads to the real email source – nominalcode@aim.com.

As well notice the errors in the contact information. First who sends out a signature form from their email client that is not spell-checked? The last name is not capitalized, and the telephone number is missing a digit.

If you get the following email do not reply to it – it is a scam.

Winnings!!!

Emails were selected within European Countries; and it’s been done once in every year. Your winning information’s for $800,000:00 USD in category ”A”

“Email lottery winning information is followed below”

Ticket number: 1001-558962-5899.
Serial number: 6677/05
Reference number: 7743909/nl

Remember, all winning must be claim not later than 30 Days. After this date all unclaimed cash prize will be forfeited. Please, in order to avoid unnecessary delay and complications remember to quote personal and winning numbers in all correspondence with us. Congratulations once again from all members of MEGA-JACKPOT LOTTERY N.L. Thank you for being part of our promotional program of this year’s winners, Send the following..

(i) Your names..
(ii) Contact telephone and fax numbers
(iii) Contact Address /Country
(iv) Your winning information
(v) Quote amount won.

*****************************************************************
Contact Mr. Hanny kopman
Tel: +31- 623-155-299
Fax: +31 -84 -759 -9744
Email: Megajackpot@games.com
*****************************************************************

Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Cohen Van Ken

You Know It Is An Internet Email Scam When… is a post from: Get Rich Fast

As with all these email borne scams there are the same clues people should follow to keep from falling victim. Remember people don’t just give away money online to people they don’t know – for any reason. Here we are lead to believe we won the lottery – so who wouldn’t want that money? Think about it, did you EVEN ENTER the draw? There are no free, non-enter, million dollar lotteries anywhere in the world. They don’t exist so how could you have won a lottery you didn’t enter, and in our case – we live in Canada, not the UK!

Next is the email and contact information. Legitimate businesses always use company email addresses, not freely obtained ones from Yahoo or Google etc. Speaking of Google, try googling portions of the email you get in your inbox and like this one, you will quickly see listing after listing detailing these as fakes, scams and frauds. Two seconds of work can save you thousands of dollars and lots of embarrassment.

If you get the email below it is a fake, scam, fraud, or whatever else you may want to call it. Do not respond to it in any way. If you have responded and given away your personal details you best contact your financial institutions and local government to have your passwords and other security checks looked over and changed.

THE U.K. NATIONAL LOTTERY ONLINE LOTTERY PROMO DEPT.

Customer Service.
PO Box 1010
Liverpool L70 1NL
United Kingdom.

Ref N0: KPL/09-002/JA.

Attn: Winner.

We happily bring to your notice the results of the U.K.National Lottery annual draw held on the 15th of August 2007 in London. The online lotto draws was conducted from an exclusive list of 50,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet.

Congratulations!

Your e-mail address attached to the Batch N0:P2/0056 with Serial number: 06/1055 drew, 18-01-07 [5] [11][13] [17] [14] [48] [25], which subsequently won you a prize in the category B You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of 1,500,000.00 (One Million, Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds) in cash credited to file Ref N0: KPL/09-002/JA.

This prize is from a total cash prize of 4,500,000.00(Four Million, Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds) shared amongst the first Three (3) lucky winners in this grand category ”B”. This year Lottery program Jackpot is the largest ever for the UK National Lottery. The estimated 35,000,000.00 (Thirty Five Million Great British Pounds) jackpot would be the sixth-biggest in the U.K. history next year(2008).

The Lowest was the 4,000,000.00 (Four Million Great British Pounds) jackpot that was shared between Four (4) lucky winners in January 2006 draw of the Big Game Mega Millions” predecessor.

For security reasons, be advised to keep your winning information from public notice until your claims is processed and your prize money remitted to you as required in this grand category B terms and conditions of claims. This is a part of ourprecautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by non winners.

Please note that, your lucky winning number: [5] [11][13] [17] [14] [48] [25] falls within our European Booklet representative office in London as indicated in our play Coupon. In view of this, your 1,500,000.00 (One Million, Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds) would be released to you by our affiliate bank.

Our approved agent, Mr. Donald Enshaw will immediately commence on the processing of your claims, to facilitate the release of your Winnings to you as soon as you make contact with him.

Please be advised as follows: To file for your claim, kindly contact our certified and accredited claims agent with the information below:

Name: Donald Enshaw
E-mail:enshaw01@gmail.com
Tel: 44 – 770-7855931
Fax: 44 – 870-1380133
Claims Processing Agent
For: The U.K National Lottery.

You are advised to provide him with the following information:

Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:

Note that, all claims processes and clearance procedures must be duly completed early to avoid impersonation or double claiming.

To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your Reference and Batch numbers in any correspondences with our designated agent.

Congratulations once more from all members and staff of the UK National Lottery Promo.

Yours Faithfully,
Shivad Carlos

Online Co-ordinator
UK National Lottery Promo
Promo

UK National Lottery Online Email Scam is a post from: Get Rich Fast

What you get with this one is the usual claim that you won the lottery and you are now eligible for their big fat prize. Problem is, we never entered any lottery, so just how do you win a lottery that you never entered? Remember now, lotteries cost money to enter – they don’t enter you for free!

So let’s start dissecting this email. Let’s start with the name of the lottery. They claim it”s the real EuroMillions Lottery, yet they spell it wrong through the email. That should be your first clue that this is a scam. Remember, Google or other search engines are your best friends when it comes to sleuthing. Search the names of companies and people involved in the email. Almost always you will start to see holes come into focus, and in this case it starts immediately with the misspelled lottery name.

Next the scam employs some old tricks including the need to keep everything quiet, “we advice that you keep all information about this prize confidential until your funds.” Well of course they want you to stay quiet while they scam you! Next we see the limited time frame to respond or else you lose your claim to the money, “You must claim our prize: 2,000,000.00 Euros not later than 7-days from the moment you receive this e-mail.” And once again, one of the easiest tell-tale signs that this is a scam, is that they want you to reply to a free email address – this time a Yahoo Germany email address – for someone purporting to be in the Netherlands.

The entire email as it came to us is listed below. If you get this email do not respond to it in any way. Just delete the email and move on. We are going to have some fun with this one. We are going to respond with our requested details as such:
Name – Sergeant Tom Scamm
Telephone – 1-627-246-4044 – which is the one they used plus one number
Address – 1247 Jailhouse Way Vancouver Canada
Occupation – Police Officer
Position – Head Internet Fraud

Let’s just see how stupid or hard up for money they really are.

Euro Millions Lottery.
Karspeldreef 6A, 1101 CJ, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Euro Millions are Affiliate of Belgium National (BNL).

We are pleased to inform you of the result of Euro Millions, which was Held on the 30th of July 2007.Your e-mail address attached to ticket number:14-18-34-45-67(76-32) With PrizeNumber(match5): 222000009 drew a prize of 2,000,000.00 (Two Million Euros). This lucky draw came first in the 2nd Categoryof the Sweepstake.

You will receive the sum of 2,000,000.00 (two Million Euros) from our Authorized bank. Because of some mix-up with sweepstake prizes, including the time limited placed on the payment of your prize: 2,000,000.00 euros, we advice that you keep all information about this prize confidential until your funds: 2,000,000.00 Euros will be transferred to you by our bank.

You must adhere to this instruction, strictly, to avoid any delay with the release of your funds to your person. This program has been abused severally in past, so we are doing our best to forestall further occurrence of false claims. This sweepstake was conducted under the watchful eyes of 8,000 spectators.

Your e-mail address attached to e-ticket number 14-18-34-45-67 (76-32) was selected and; it came out first by an e-ballot draw from over 250,000 e-mail addresses (personal and corporate e-mail addresses).

This program is sponsored by CFI to compensate faithful internet suffers around the globe.

Congratulations for becoming one of the few lucky winners.

With your permission, your e-mail will also be included in the next Sweepstake of 20Million Euros.

You must claim our prize: 2,000,000.00 Euros not later than 7-days from the moment you receive this e-mail. In order to avoid unnecessary Delays with your claim from the bank; please contact them immediately, and quote your winning and personal information now,and in all your Correspondence with the bank. Here is the contact Information: Bank: Premuim Heypotheekofferte Bank. N.L.

Attention: Mr. FRED VAN
Karspeldreef 6A, 1101 CJ, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
E-mail: premuimbankplcnl@yahoo.de
Phone: +31 627-246-404
Fax: +31-847-185-133

Furnish them with the following:
(i) Your name(s),
(ii) Your telephone and fax numbers
(iii) Your contact address.
(iv) Your winning information (including amount won).
(v) occupation and position in office
Congratulations in Advance!!!

Yours Faithfully,

Vjertis Von Adrian (Ms.) CPA.
Coordinator: Euro Millions.

You Won The Lottery That You Never Entered Scam is a post from: Get Rich Fast

We could tell where this was leading from the first email. And the response published below confirms that these scammers are seeking victims and their money via extraordinarily over-priced shipping costs. This email also shows a more direct end to the game as well, that they tried to hide in the first two emails. The schemers want the victim to send personal information about themselves in order to secure their funds. To be sure those who are wavering on parting with their money don’t walk away, they toss out the limited time frame to respond, thus pressuring the victim into a hasty response.

This latest email is clumsy once again, as they try to make it appear as though the email comes from a separate company – in this case the courier company titled TNT Courier Service. Looking closer at the email we can see some things standing out that should make you suspicious. First, the email is done in bold with loose formatting – hardly the standard of a respectable company. Second, looking at the source code of the email we can see once again that the email really comes from another yahoo email address. The ”from” field for unsuspecting users looks fairly legit. And speaking of legit, the email intersperses a few images from TNT.com – the website for a very legal and real company. (We have contacted them as well to alert them that their Trademark etc are being used in a scam.)

We tried calling the number in the email but that didn’t lead anywhere. Potential victims of such scams should remember that a reputable company would send any product to you either at no cost to you, or would allow you to choose how you want your winnings/purchase/prize/giveaway etc to be sent. They would not be using a yahoo email address and would not use fake phone numbers. Protect yourself by doing a bit of your own question asking. Look closely at what is being presented to you.

Finally, to keep this going we are going to respond that we don’t have enough money and wish to find another way to claim our prize. Let’s see what they can come up with…

ATTENTION: Kyle,

This is to inform you that you have been officially cleared for payment by the Verifications Dept. at the headquarters of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY online Sweepstakes International program.

The original copy of this certificate from the stating that the money was obtained legally through their Online UK NATIONAL LOTTERY promotion will be sent to you or your bank as soon as you meet with any of the options selected and your winnings will be couriered or transferred to you immediately.

You can now begin the final step of the claims process, which is the transferring of your cash prize to you either in Cash/Cheque. With regards to this, there are three options open to you, you are required to select the most convenient of the three.

The options, together with their associated conditions are presented below:

OPTIONS:
Courier of your winning draft to you via any of this channel listed below:

Option:1
TNT EXPRESS DELIVERY (Overnight)
Mailing………………………….£105.00
Insurance………………………..£430.00
Vat (5%)………………………..£034.75
TOTAL……………………………£569.75========$978.35

Option:2
TNT PREMIUM SERVICE(2working days)
Mailing  …………………..£75.00
Insurance………………………..£350.00
Vat (5%)…………………………£038.95
TOTAL……………………………£463.95========$796.87

Option:3
TNT REGULAR SERVICE(4working days)
Mailing ;………………………..£60.00
Insurance………………………..£300.00
Vat (5%)…………………………£019.00
TOTAL……………………………£379.00========$650.96

The insurance company declined reverse payment for the courier, stating that it is against their professional policy towards ensuring the safe delivery of the draft to you. That if a reverse payment is made, and something goes wrong, that we/you cannot sue the courier company or insurance company to recover the full value of the fund as stipulated in the draft since payment for insurance cover was not made at point of mailing.

With the above reason, reverse payment is ruled out.Forward the cost of mailing your draft with any of the courier channel cost you choose above to us.

Note that your prize is protected by a hardcover insurance policy by GEOTRUST INSURANCE COMPANY, which makes it impossible for us to deduct any amount from your winnings before it is Remitted to you.

This means that the above charges cannot be deducted from the prize and hence must be provided by you before your prize is transferred to you. Please respond to this email by making a selection from the courier options above.

Also attach a scanned copy of either your driver”s license, international passport (photo page) or any other legally identifying document(Optional) while sending your option to us.

Also be reminded that the deadline for the claiming of your winnings is exactly two weeks after the receipt of this email. After this period, your cash prize will be deemed to have been forfeited by you and will be re-used in the drawings of the next edition of the lottery.

OPTION 2:BANK TO BANK TRANSFER

Condition: The cost of COT (commission of transfer) being charged by our transfering contracting bank, which is (£640 GBP) of the cash being transferred will be paid by beneficiary(winner) for account activation/COT.

Note: That your prize is protected by a GEOTRUST INSURANCE COMPANY POLICY, which makes it impossible to deduct any amount from the money before it is remitted to you. This means that the above charges CANNOT be deducted from the prize and hence must be paid pending on the option selected.

Please, respond to this email by making a selection from the options above. Also attach a scanned copy of either your driver”s licence, international passport (photo page) or any other legally identifying document.

Once again, Good luck and Congratulations . You are to send your response within the next 24hrs.

Regards,
MR MARK BROWN.
(Dispatch officer)
TNT COURIER SERVICE
TEL:+44 7045 70514

Internet Lottery Scam Begins To Become Undone is a post from: Get Rich Fast

Like the original spam email which crossed our desktop, this one too asks us to believe that a national lottery based in London is going to be using yahoo email addresses as its main method of communication. There is the ominous lack of a phone number which any large lottery corporation would readily supply to a winning consumer. Same can be said for a central website. In this day and age even the smallest companies now have Internet websites, but we are to believe that a million dollar lottery company does not? It”s these little and easily identified traits which announce this as a scam.

We have dispatched an email to the ”courier company” and will publish here any response. It’s becoming more clear that the scam may be having us to pay for a very large courier fee on the premise of getting our million dollar plus cheque. And finally, all information collected including email addresses, their routing methods, IP addresses, and everything else associated with this scam is being compiled and will be handed over to the proper authorities.

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY.
MORTIMER HOUSE ,MORTIMER STREET,
LONDON, W1T3JH UNITED KINGDOM.
Ref No: UK/9420X2/68
Batch Number: 074/05/ZY369
Lucky Numbers: 31-17-8-28-55[08] Bonus Ball
27th/02/2007

ATTN: Kyle,

CONGRATULATIONS! This is to inform you that you have been cleared a winner of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY online Sweepstakes International program. I am happy to inform you,your Original Certificate and your Certified bank cheque has been foward to the courier company.

Find below the details of the courier company.

TNT COURIER SERVICE
ADDRESS OF HEAD OFFICE: Link House,
1C CHURCH STREET, WHITCHURCH, HANTS, RG28 7AD
NAME: MR MARK BROWN. (Dispatch officer)
EMAIL: tntcourier_service007@yahoo.co.uk

You are advised to send the courier company a mail to their email address for their courier cost.When contacting them,you are to include this order number as your subject.Please you are adviced to write down the order number and save it.

ORDER NUMBER: TM562-72C5
Note: you are to Quote your complete names,Ref/Batch Numbers, Age, and your direct phone number so that they can honour your letter.Once again i say congratulations and always inform me with your dealings with the courier company.

Thanks,
Mr TONY SMITH
Claims Unit Department,
UK NOTIONAL Lottery

Internet Lottery Scam Part Two is a post from: Get Rich Fast

We will be replying to this unsolicited spam email posing as someone thinking that they have indeed won the lottery. We will post the results as they come in.

To avoid such a situation yourself look for the obvious clues. First, why would a Canadian be entered into a UK lottery? Why would someone be entered into a lottery without asking for it? Where would they have gotten your information from to begin with, and if they already know who we are to enter us into the draw, why do they now need our personal information to pay out the funds?

Next notice the email address for the ”claims” department. Would a ”National Lottery” as they proclaim be using a free yahoo email address? Of course not, it”s a feeble attempt to hide the con man behind a thin veil of anonymity. There is also no website provided, and a search on the search engines shows no such organization exists anywhere in the world, including the UK as they suggest.

ATTENTION: WINNER,

You have been Selected in the UKONL 2007 Lottery Program. Our lottery program selection has finally been performed today which was held at the Marina office. UK Promotion is a joint Euro/America private lottery registered and organized in accordance with the World Lottery Regulation act. We the The National Lottery organizing committee are pleased to officially notify you of the status of your email application.

An official notification of winning is hereby issued to you as your email promotionticket randomly drew for the Lucky Numbers: 31-17-8-28-55 [08] Bonus Ball ,which selected your email as the 2ND winner of our lottery program you have consequently won the lottery program in the first batch. Suffice to say here, We have officially approved a sum payout of £750,000.00 GBP to you as the lottery winner.

FIDUCIARY DEPT:
NAME: GRAY MOORE.
(CLAIMS OFFICER)
Email:claims_tonyukagent3@yahoo.co.uk

VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM
SURNAME:
MIDDLE NAME:
AGE:
SEX:
ADDRESS:
COUNTRY:
WINNING EMAIL ADDRESS:
MARITAL STATUS:
OCCUPATION:
PHONE NUMBER:
FAX NUMBER:
LUCKY NUMBER :
REF NUMBER:

Congratulations from all our staff for being part of UK 2007 LOTTERY PROGRAM.
Sincerely,
Marian Jones(Mrs)
Zonal Co-ordinator

We only edited the solicitation for presentation purposes, everything else is as it came – for example – missing carriage return or extra space between words.

Lottery Scam Via Spam Email Solicitation is a post from: Get Rich Fast