Prana, feel free to move this if you feel that it is off-topic but I wanted to make sure it got complete exposure. Yesterday I got a couple of PMs from this site saying I had won the British lottery via this email. How in the world could they even get a hold of it, even if it's a scam? So I gave one of my email addresses and the man wants my name, address, and phone number. He says that he will send me a Visa card with 1 million pounds on it. But if it was really a scam, wouldn't it be one of those things where they ask you to cash a check and then they will give you money in return? What good does it do to have my info if he is not also requesting any money? Is the national lottery based out of Liverpool? Am I embarrassing myself to even ask these questions and entertain the notion that it could be legit?

Edit: [www.consumerfraudreporting.org]



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2010 02:53AM by banana who.

This was the original PM that I received on this site yesterday:


CONGRATULATIONS
From: onlineuk200
To: banana who
Date: 06/29/2010 07:09AM


The National Lottery
P O Box 1010
Liverpool , L70 1NL UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)
Ref: SGIL/763276/03
Batch: 074/05/ZY3 .
Dear lucky winner,
We happily announce to you the draw of the UK-National Lottery International programs held last week..

Your e-mail address linked to your profile, attached to ticket number: 56475600545 187, with Serial number 87-11 drew the lucky numbers: 12,37,39,40,50,01 Bonus 02. Which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of GBP 1,000,000.00{ONE MILLION BRITISH POUNDS} in cash credited to file REF NO.SGIL/763276/03.
This is from a total cash prize of GBR £16,000,000(SIXTEEN MILLION BRITISH POUNDS STERLING) shared amongst the first sixteen (16) lucky winners in this category. All participants were selected randomly from Worldwide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 companies. This promotion takes place annually. Please note
that your lucky winning number fall within our European booklet representative office in Europe as indicated in your play coupon. In view of this,Your GBP 1, 000, 000.00 {ONE MILLION BRITISH POUNDS) would be configured/loaded into a bank card and sent to your address so you can be able to draw the prize from any bank payment outlet in your country . To begin your claims therefore, you are advised on final notice and as a matter of urgency, to contact our licensed and accredited claim agent for Overseas Lottery Winners as stated below
Contact thus: CONTACT OUR CLAIMS MANAGER,
NAME: ROSS EVANS
Email: evanslot40@gmail.com
Tel: +44-703-174-7346
Fax: +44-870-490-0810
Due to mixed up in some numbers and names and for the purpose of confidentiality, be advised to keep this award notification as secret from public notice until you have received your prize as this is part of precautionary measures to avoid double claim or misuse of this program by some social miscreants. Hence, your prize award winning is confidential as our winners are at liberty to remain completely anonymous until payment is effected. Congratulations once more from all members and staff of this program.
Thank you for being part of our promotional lottery program.
Sincerely,
STELLA OWEN (MS)
LOTTERY CO-ORDINATOR

I'm a Brit, and, yes, it's 500% definitely a scam.

I am a Brit too and it's definately a scam. It's always worth remembering if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is

If you didn't try for the lottery, you cannot have won, right?

hey! I won that too! lol

yeah, I already posted something about this, I think there's a scammer on the site sending us these messages.

yeah, its definitely a scam, at the very least the scammer can sell your personal info to junk mail groups...

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What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Tamukha Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you didn't try for the lottery, you cannot have
> won, right?

LOL- okay...now was that an affirmation that I am a blooming idiot?

I didn't know how anyone could get my email address, since it does not have the standard address and all...I didn't give any info to them, by the way! Just covering all the bases...

I get these emails quite often........and don't even bother opening them., it's considered phishing . Just a way to get personal information which is used for scamming.
Like Tamukha said.......you've got to have played the lottery for you to win. Anyway, it doesn't matter how complicated your email address is, they have programs that just fire out every possible combination of addresses and send out millions of emails....and then wait for someone to reply. Sad, but someone always replies.

Just delete, delete,delete!!

Shazz: This was the first one I've ever gotten, believe it or not. My regular email has good SPAM guard and I don't have to worry about that kind of thing. That was why I asked about it last night. Certainly I didn't think it could be true but I was still curious why they seemed to not want anything from me. You know, like Publisher's Clearinghouse. I was hoping that an Ed McMahon-type would magically show up and ring my front door...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2010 01:57AM by banana who.

banana who,

You are not a blooming idiot--it seems marvelously random, but these comp programs are designed to elicit as much pertinent data in common with your financial data as possible to lessen the number of leaps required to get to your financial data. Trust no one.