Australian Lottery?

Question

i received an email.. it goes like this....
Congratulations!!! (Your email won the Lottery)
Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2006 10:09:01 -0500
Date: 7/12/2006
Ref: 575061725
Batch: 8056490902/188

Winning Numbers 1 2 26 30 40 21




AWARD NOTIFICATION: FINAL NOTICE:
Attn: Winner,

We are pleased to inform you of the lottery result winners of Australian International Lottery Programmes held on the 10th of October 2006 from the Australian International Lottery programme. Which is fully based on an electronic selection of winners using their e-mail addresses.Your name was attached to ticket number; 675061725 9356460902 Serial Number 67749137002. This batch draws the lucky numbers as follows 2-9-23-35-46 bonus number 14, which consequently won the lottery in the second category. You are here by have been approved a lump sum pay of US$400,000.00 ( FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) -->> is this a SCAM?

Answer 1

It is a Nigerian scam and widely used. The Australian Football Lottery, The U.K Football Lottery are just a few of the many. The Nigerian scammers use U.K. Internet Service Providers so their return address is the U.K. but in fact they are in Africa. Do not respond. I am a retired Police Officer that over the years investigates these Internet frauds and receive many a day. One of the things I like to do is reply and tell them I'm interested but so my wife won't find out send any further correspondence to a different email address and I send them the email address of a different scam so they can scam each other.

Answer 2

Do you remember entering an "Australian Lottery?" When's the last time you heard of a lottery that awards prizes to people who have not even entered?

This is a scam. At some point, you will be asked to send them money or your bank account information. Either way, they will take your money and you will receive nothing in return, except maybe a fake cashier's check.

Answer 3

You know what I got the same exact email. And the claims company wanted me to send them like 500.00 to ship the check with my winnings. I believed it at first but after all that fuss it totally turned into a scam. They just kept wanting more and more information.