It has been three days since I last opened my email. Actually, it was only now that I went online.
As a usual routine, after signing in at my Yahoo! Messenger, I quickly clicked the Mail button to check my mail. As expected, I have lots of new email messages from different sources. I read there that last night, Yael and company held a chat session at mIRC which made me so disappointed because I wasn’t able to join that chat session that I’ve been waiting for. So after reading emails regarding that, I went on to my other emails. I saw this email with the subject * * * YAHOO LOTTERY AWARD 2007 * * * from 
info_mail04@yahoo.dk, and the same address is written in the ‘to’ section of the email. I clicked the link and viewed the messages. I was expecting that this messages would be regarding the lottery that they will come up with this year. I expected to see steps on how to join and stuff like that. Then after opening the email,
YAHOO INTERNET LOTTERY
CONGRATULATIONS!
Yahoo! Mail announces you as one of the 10 lucky winners in the ongoing 12 Years Yahoo lottery Award of the new year 2007.
All 10 winning email addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 50,000,000 international emails each from Canada. Australia.United State. Asia. Europe. Middle East. Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually, consequently, you have been approved for a total pay out of SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATE DOLLARS ( $600.000 .00)
This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomerate of some multinational companies and the WORLD BANK as part of their social responsibility to the citizens in the communities where they have operational base.
Further more your details(e-mail address) falls within our Spanish representative office in Madrid Spain as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of ( $600.000.00) will be released to you from this regional branch office in Madrid.
HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE
These are your identification numbers.
Batch number:………………………..12115-04/SZ
Reference number:………. RN/0999/171ESP
lucky numbers………………. 9-13-21-30-31-44,
NOTE THIS:
YOU ARE NOW BEING ADVISED TO CALL THE TELEPHONE NUMBER BELOW TO TRACK YOUR PAYMENT ON LINE WORLD BANK TELEPHONE BANKING SYSTEM THE WORLD BANK BANKERS BANK FUND CONFIRMATION UNIT IN SWITZERLAND
THE WORLD BANK FUND CONFIRMATION UNIT
TEL: 0041 -445801493 ext. 4 / FAX: 0041-43-430-21-02
LOTTERY PRIZE AWARD DEPOSIT ACCOUNT TRACKING NUMBER IS: 784285 #
Yahoo!’s Agent for Notice of claims of copyright or other intellectual property infringement can be reached as follows:
As part of our security protocol you are to quote this security code to your claim agent . This to prevent scam YLAW/AUG/XX07
ZURICK SEGUROS ESPA�A S.A
Francisco Gervas, 10 28020 Madrid Spain
Contact Person: Mr. Morris Moore
Tel: +34-666-268-256
Fax: +34-912-919-688
: zuriseguros@aim.com
Telephone lines are open between the hours of
8:00am-19:30pm.Monday -Saturday …Ext…001
You are to send the completed verification form below to the Agent in the Madrid Spain whose email address is given above so that you will be advised on what to do to get your prize money. Congratulations once more!!
1. FULL NAME
2. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
3. PRESENT ADDRESS.
4. DATE OF BIRTH
5. OCCUPATION
6. TELEPHONE NUMBER
6. FAX NUMBER
7. MARITAL STATUS
8.SECURITY CODE
9. WINNING NUMBER, BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER.
For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you.
This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this program by non-selected winner or unofficial personnel.
Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Chris Carlos Mr. Morris Moore
(Co-coordinator). (Claim Agent)
Yahoo lottery is a free service that does not require you to be a Yahoo! Registered user
That was the exact message I saw (yeah! it’s a copy-paste stuff!)
I never joined any lottery? How come I just won?
Although I was excited to see how to claim the 600,000 US dollar prize, I still felt in doubt. That when I decided to search Yahoo! about this lottery. I typed Yahoo internet lottery in the search engine, then many results came up. The first results presented are supposed to be the most relevant results to the searched item, and the first results are all about scams and stuff. I came to this site, the Consumer Fraud Reporting, where stuff about scam lotteries received in email are discussed. According to the site, there are several types of email scams:
- A lottery notifies you (email, mail or phone) that you won, or
- You go to a lottery website, or by phone or mail to “play” / buy a ticket, or
- You buy a “program” of “secrets” on how to win lotteries.
- Green card (immigration VISA) lottery
- Sweepstakes scams (Sweepstakes are not actually a lottery, but are often confused with them)
Key tips:
- You can’t win a prize in a lottery you haven’t bought or been given a ticket for.
- Legitimate lotteries don’t ask for funds in advance of paying out prize money.
- Never provide personal identity information to a company or person you do not know.
Click here for the list of scam lotteries from the site.
What to do if you receive stuff like the one I just received?
- don’t respond to the emails
- don’t EVER pay any money in advance to collect a prize
- don’t reveal your full identity
- don’t reveal any financial or personal information, such as your bank account number or credit card details
Some words from the FTC for people who thinks of responding to this thing:
- If you play a foreign lottery-through the mail or over the telephone-you’re violating U.S. federal law, so don’t expect any help from the government.
- There are no secret systems for winning foreign lotteries. Your chances of winning more than the cost of your tickets are slim to none.
- If you purchase one foreign lottery ticket, expect many more bogus offers for lottery or investment “opportunities.” Your name will be placed on “sucker lists” that fraudulent telemarketers buy and sell.
- Keep your credit card and bank account numbers to yourself. Scam artists often ask for them during an unsolicited sales pitch.
- If you receive a letter saying you’ve won, when you haven’t entered a lottery; it IS a fraud – count on it!
Credits: comsumerfraudreporting.org
