To many people, the lottery represents an opportunity to win money, in large or small amounts, in a legal, organized, even communally beneficial way. To others, it represents an opportunity to take advantage of people's optimism and good will by scamming them in the name of a legal lottery.
Unfortunately, the UK National Lottery is no different from other organized lotteries in the world. Lottery players, and sometimes non-lottery players, need to educate themselves about the methods these scammers use. Scams are not difficult to spot if you know what to look for.
Take the email below, as an example. This is an actual email that has circulated among UK residents.
Fecha: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:54:55 +0000 (UTC De: "Uk National Lottery Inc." info@uklottery.co.uk Asunto: Uk Lottery Winning Notification
UK-GAMING Headquarters:United Kingdom Customer Service Ref: 851125 Batch #: 09-18-21-24-37-48
To the receiver of this email,
This is to notify you that your email address was officially emerged and won the sum of GBP 650,000.00 ( Six Hundred An Fifty Thousand Pounds in the Online Uk Gaming Board Programme.
The award was held 24th March 2008 and results were released on 28th March 2008.
The winning numbers, Batch number: (UK 09-18-21-24-37-48) Serial
Number; 851125 and a bonus ball of (23).
All online participants was selected fro a data base on internet users from which your email address came out as the winning coupon.
In view of this, Your 650 000(Six Hundred & Fifty Thousand British pounds sterling) will be released to you by any of our payment offices in Europe.
Chose your mode of delivery
(1)BANK TRANSER(BANK TO BANK TRANSFER)
(2) COURIER DELIVERY (CERTIFIED CHEQUE MADE OUT IN YOUR NAME DELIVERED TO YOU VIA OUR AFFILIATE COURIER COMPANY)
For more information on how to redeem your prize, You are to reply with the information below as soon as you receive this notification.
CONTACT NAME: RYAN BOND
EMAIL: ukcliamsldt2@hotmail.co.uki
Tel:0 44 704 521 4521
INFORMATION FOR CLAIMS
1. Full Names: 2. Address: 3. Age: 4. Sex: 5. Marital Status: 6. Occupation: 7. Phone numbers: 8. Country:
Please note the following:
1All claims are nullified after 20 working days from today.
2Your Reference number must be in all your mails with the claims officer.
3Do inform the claims officer of any change of names or addresses.
4Please do not reply to this email. Contact your claims agent.
This international promotion is proudly sponsored by Yahoo! Inc. to encourage the use of the Internet and computers world wide.
We are proud to say that over 200 Million Pounds are won annually in more than 150 countries worldwide.
Yours Truly Graham Lewis
CO-ORDINATOR (ONLINE PROMO PROGRAMME)
This first thing that should raise your suspicions - if you did not buy a lottery ticket, you cannot win the lottery. If you did buy a ticket, it is your responsibility to match the number and notify the lottery that you won.
You WILL NOT be notified by email by any legitimate lottery that you won a prize. All emails claiming differently are scams. Do not reply to any of them.
Did you notice the horrible spelling, grammar and word usage in this email? All communication handled by the two large, legal lotteries in the UK, the National Lottery and the Monday Lottery, will be professionally written. And, again, it will NEVER be in the form of an email notifying you of winnings.
Some other things to know:
There is no such thing as a "computer ballot system" or "computer email draw." There is no database of email addresses that can "win" you the lottery.
This scammer is asking you to reply to a free email account (hotmail, Yahoo, etc.) Proper business organizations use their own email, domain and website.
A real lottery will never ask you to keep quiet about your winnings. Publicizing winnings is one way the lotteries get more people to play.
If you think you're being scammed, or have been scammed, contact the national lottery for help resolving the matter.