How would I find out if this is legitimate or not without sending any person information. All they are asking is for personal information (name, address, etc) to claim the prize. Also their are several numbers listed as well, ticket, serial, file and draw numbers. There are also written name and addresses for the lottery company. One is listed in Holland and another in India. Thanks for any help with this. The amount she supposedly won is $250,000 (2nd place).
2006-09-10 00:55:31 · 25 answers · asked by jjenkinskelso 2 in News & Events ➔ Other - News & Events
They are all well-known hoaxes and scams.
1) Nobody wins a lottery they didn't enter
2) International lotteries are illegal
3) Check any addresses they give in the email using postcode search. You will find that they don't exist.
The people who do this send out thousands of identical emails. They depend on people's greed to disable their sense of logic and hope that maybe 1% of the people who get them are silly enough to part with their details and, of course, a sizeable amount of cash as a "validation fee".
Interpol has already caught several of these fraudsters.
2006-09-10 01:02:44 · answer #1 · answered by Owlwings 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't send any information. That is called phishing (or something similar), they send you a mail and ask you for all that personal information you said. With that information they can probably access your bank account, or do any weird stuff from that.
Also, there is a lot of mails supposedly form ebay, paypall, one bank or another that said that they found out that your account was being accessed from another country, and that in order to verify that you are you, you must fill out information on a link. That's also phishing. If you get a mail, and are not sure about it, enter the site of ebay, paypal, bank x or bank y, and search for a contact link, and email them that mail, tell them you received it, but are not sure if it's legit or not. Most probably it won't be legit.
2006-09-10 08:00:12 · answer #2 · answered by Roberto 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is definitely a scam.
In order to find more information, put in your search engine the company that appears in the letter and you'll find that you are not the only one that has received this "lucky announcement".
You will find also that the same serial number and batch number has been issued to others as well.
Sorry that I might destroy any dreams...but I had the same luck as you do and I made a thorough research...:)
2006-09-10 08:06:24 · answer #3 · answered by UncleGeorge 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is a well known internet scam. They will tell you that you need to send a processing fee to receive the money anything from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds.
If it sounds too good to be true it is.
Put the email in the trash where it belongs.
2006-09-10 07:58:13 · answer #4 · answered by Bebe 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
hi there
i can understand that u must be happy when u received this letter.i got a same kind of letter last month.n then one of my friend told me that these are scam e mail.they just send you these emails to take ur personal details.when they have ur details they can use them in any way.so my suggestion to you is to to ignore it.but hope that u won a real prize in future very soon.
2006-09-10 08:40:07 · answer #5 · answered by nirmal k 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
one obvious question - did she ever enter the lottery ? no - well how can she possibly win .... its a scam ......check out the details you suppossedly win $250,000 but have to send off money to claim it ! why if you had really won - why not deduct the fee from the winnings and send it to you .....never give you bank details to these sites
2006-09-10 08:03:33 · answer #6 · answered by bluebottle 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is yet another variety of "phishing"
They will ask for credit card numbers, bank account numbers, or just maybe are trying to get access to your computer for this information. Don't even open these emails.
2006-09-10 08:03:27 · answer #7 · answered by GreenHornet 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Delete this email NOW! This is a common email scam!!! You will find out that you have to pay money to collect your prize. You pay and never get your "prize"
2006-09-10 08:05:16 · answer #8 · answered by David A 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Never believe any of those e.mails, in-fact I would delete all of them and never open them. I don't open any e.mail that I don't know who sent it. I have heard that if you open them it sends the person a confirmation that its a good e.mail address and you will get more and more junk mail daily.
It`s a big Scam.
2006-09-10 10:32:31 · answer #9 · answered by Sandra♥ 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's an attempt to steal phone service by causing you to transfer your phone number, if you answer you'll probably receive a call requiring you to dial a certain set of numbers, which they sent you by mail, when you do it you'll find that your phone is dead.
Delete!
2006-09-10 08:30:56 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋