Is this a fraud e-mail?

Question

This is what I got :-
BRITISH ONLINE NOTIFICATION DESK.
GOVERNMENT ACCREDITED LICENSED!!
BRITISH ONLINE INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY
IS REGISTERED UNDER THE DATA PROTECTION ACT OF;
(Registration Z720633X).

The British National Lottery
P O Box 1010
3b Olympic Way, Sefton Business Park,
Aintree, Liverpool , L30 1RD
(Customer Services)


Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369

WINNING NOTIFICATION:

We happily announce to you the draw (#1004) of the BRITISH LOTTERY online Sweepstakes International program held on 2oth of January 2007. It is now available for claims and you are
getting the final NOTIFICATION as regards this.

Your e-mail address attached to ticket number:56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers: 05, 06, 17, 20, 28, 42 ( Bonus 33) , which subsequently won you the lottery in the 1st category i.e match 5 plus bonus.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of 1 Million Pounds,(One Million Pounds) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03. This is from a total cash prize of £ 1000,000 Million Pounds , shared amongst the(4)lucky winners in this category i.e Match 6 plus bonus.

All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies that are listed online. This promotion takes place weeklyPlease note that your lucky winning number falls within our European booklet representative office in Europe as indicated in your play coupon. In view of this,your 1 Million Pounds,(one million,Pounds ) will be released to you by any of our payment offices in Europe.

Our European agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact him.For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claim is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize.

This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned!!!

To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent:

Mr. Maxwell Smith,
Tel: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

*IMPORTANT* FILL OUT THIS WINNERS VERIFICATION FORM BELOW:

Your application for the claim of lottery winning prize will be duly processed and settlement made upon certification.Hence, carefully fill in the appropriate information in the space provided below for record purposes to facilitate our immediate commencement of your claims process.

The completed form should be sent to your Fiduciary agent for immediate commencement of prize
remittance

*Name of Beneficiary:..................
*Address:..............................
*City/State:...........................
*Country:............................
*Nationality:..........................
*Sex:..................................
*Email Address:....................
*Tel:..................................
*Fax (if any)..........................
*Occupation:.........................
*Next of Kin:.........................
*Age:.................................
*AMOUNT WON:...................
*In Figures:...........................
*In Words:.............................
*Lucky Nos:...........................
*Ticket No:............................
OFFICE USE ONLY
Verified by:________________
Confirmed by: ________________
FIDUCIARY AGENT SIGNATURE:________________

Congratulations from me and members of staff of THE BRITISH LOTTERY.
Yours faithfully,Stella Ellis(Mrs)
Online coordinator for THE BRITISH LOTTERY
Sweepstakes International Program.

Confidentiality Notice:
Please note that this email, and any files that may be attached to it,he/her confidential and he/her intended for the sole use of the individual(s) or entity(ies) to which it/they he/her addressed. Any use,distribution,copying or disclosure by any other person or entity is strictly prohibited under applicable law(s). If you received this email in error,please notify the sender by return email and delete the original message (making sure it is also deleted from the Deleted Items folder of your mail client).Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to official business of BRITISH LOTTERY and insurance shall be understood to be neither given nor endorsed by BRITISH LOTTERY finance and insurance when addressed to comet finance and insurance clients; and any information contained in this email is subject to the terms and conditions of the governing client's contract(s).b

Answer 1

There is no UK (United Kingdom) Lottery, British Lottery, Thunderball Online Lottery in the UK, Australian Lottery, Spanish Lottery, Yahoo Lottery, Microsoft Lottery (emmulating from the UK or anywhere else) or any other form of lottery you can win without buying a ticket. While some people might only copy and paste such email to their answer with a brief take on it, I will go into detail because I'm tired of this trash, as several of my friends have lost their a$$es to this scam.

There exists a certain form of immoral degenerate that trolls the internet searching for suckers who believe that they have gotten very lucky and won a lottery which they have never entered. They will probably entice you to send an advance fee to claim your non-existant winnings and if you do send this money, you can kiss it goodbye. The money will likely be en-route to Nigeria, a cesspool of fraud that has been the center of these types of fraud over the last few decades.

The best thing to do is to delete such emails immediately and to never reply to them. If you even reply, you risk having your email inbox flooded. If you call these people, expect to be harrassed over the phone at all hours of the night! In some cases, people who travel to claim their winnings in Nigeria are taken hostage, and in worse-case scenarios are killed when whoever is paying ransom payments exhausts their money supply. If anything online sounds to good to be true it always is buddy.

By the way, I have kind of become an anti-scam activists due to the fact that I have many friends who have had their identities and life savings stolen from them via these methods.

This is simply advance fee fraud (a prevalent type of fraud which continously asks for money to cover unforseen expenses) and is intended to drain your bank account, promising money that simply does not exist. Hopefully, this answers your question.

If you have any more questions, do a yahoo search on lottery scams, nigeria 419 scams, internet fraud, or advance fee fraud. You can also read more about this at www.secretservice.gov and www.419eater.com!

If you have lost money you should report it to the U.S. Secret Service at www.secretservice.gov

Now you know the basics of Advance Fee Fraud, a multi-million dollar industry that costs honest people their life savings everyday. Be happy you weren't duped by this scam!

I hope this is helpful, because I could sure use a best answer! I would appreciate it!

Answer 2

Yes it's fraud and if you reply they will ask you for your personal info and hit you hard.

Answer 3

Definately 100% no doubt about it. You know how many of those I get? They are trying to eventually get your bank account numbers.

Answer 4

not as bad as some I have seen at least they are not asking you for up front money to process winnings...if you truely entered lottery I would go with it at least until they ask for money or more personal information such as saving accounts bank accounts friends names and addesses

Answer 5

people have been getting them all over europe.big scam. the latest was supposedly from spanish govt lottery. it was just on news last week in europe. they even sent to people who have been deceased. they get your bank info and sipe out accounts .beware.

Answer 6

Probably

Answer 7

YES - definately

Answer 8

Yep.

Answer 9

you'll find out quick if its real when you give them your personal information.