AUSTRALIAN LOTYERY ONLINE WAS TRUE OR NOT? I recieve a e-mail asking that i won 1 MILLION US DOLLARS!?

Question

YOU HAVE WON $1 MILLION US DOLLARS
Ref: 435062725
Batch: 7050470902/189
Winning no: GB8101/LPRC

Dear Winner

We are delighted to inform you of your prize which was released today being 3rd July 2007, from the Australian International Lottery program, which is fully based on an electronic selection of winners using their e-mail address from some sites. Your email address was attached to ticket number; 4700172507056490102 and serial number 7741134002. This batch draws the lucky numbers as follows 5-13-33-37-42 and bonus number 17,which consequently won the lottery in the second category.

You hereby have been approved a lump sum pay of USD$1,000,000.00 (ONE MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS ONLY) in cash credit file ref: ILP/HW47509/09 from the total cash prize shared amongst eight lucky winners in this category. All participants were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotion program which is conducted annually. This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomerate of some multinational companies as part of
their social responsibility to the citizens in the communities where they have an operational base.

Furthermore, your details (e-mail address) fall within our European representative office in Amsterdam,Holland as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of USD$1,000,000.00 will be released to you from this regional office in NIGERIA. We hope that with part of your prize, you will participate
in our end of year high stakes for US$1.5 Billion international draw. To file for your claim, please contact our director of finance.

Name: Mr. David Donald
Email: [e-mail]
Tel: [phone]

Please quote your reference, batch and winning number which can be found on the top left corner of this notification as well as your full name, address and telephone number to help locate your file easily. For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this program by non-participants or unofficial personnel. Note: all winnings MUST be claimed before the 3rd August 2007; otherwise all funds will be returned as Unclaimed and eventually donated to charity organizations.

Yours Faithfully,

Mrs. Kate Ross.
Coordinator,
Australian Lottery Inc.
NOTE: Do not reply to me, rather you are to contact Mr.David Donald

Name: Mr. David Donald
Email: [e-mail]
Tel: [phone]

Answer 1

Scam.

Answer 2

Why would an AUSTRALIAN lottery offer prizes in US DOLLARS? Think about it for a moment, and unless you plan to wallpaper your house with them (not that there is any lottery or any "winnings" in any case), I'd put the email exactly where it belongs, in your deleted items folder. It's a very bad version of the well-known Lottery scam, most usually eminating from Nigeria. What they really want is your bank account details to pay this mythical cheque into, or alternatively they will ask for some kind of mythical "administration fee" before they will pass on your non-existant winnings.

Some emails are more believable than others, and unfortunately, some people still fall for this practice, especially the equally mythical Yahoo lottery which pays out in just about every currency except Iraqi Dinars, but as others have said, there is one golden rule - "If you didn't buy a ticket, then you can't win." Remember that piece of advice always. If you buy any kind of lottery ticket, it is up to YOU to check you have a winning ticket - they don't come looking for you by email. If you don't claim in time, then tough. ALWAYS be dubious when told you have won something by email in a lottery that you have never heard of.

PS: One last piece of advice. Major national lottery companies (and banks or other financial institutions for that matter) do not use FREE yahoo or hotmail email addresses for correspondance. :-)

Answer 3

It is scam. Yahoo (insert any company name here, this answer works for all!) do not run an email lottery, if they did you could guarantee it would be advertised all over their home page. Check out these links and search answers to see how many people 'win' the exact same lottery every day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lottery_sca...
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/email-lottery-scams.html

Do not click on any links, the page you will be taken to will look authentic but is not
Do not send them a 'courier fee' or any other money
Do not hand over any bank details or passwords

Do report spam
Do delete

Remember there is no such thing as a free lunch. You cannot win a lottery if you haven ot bought a ticket. Anyone can set up an email account with Yahoo, they can use any combination of letters they choose. I could be '[e-mail]' or '[e-mail]' That doesn't mean that I am either of these and is fine as long as I don't try to use the address to mislead people. Don't be fooled by legitimate looking email addresses which end the same way as any other free account, don't be fooled by fictitious titles such as 'Dr' or 'Executive Director of Winner Claims'.


(I've answered this question so many times that I now keep this answer on my desktop and just copy and paste....that should give you a clue!)

Answer 4

No, it isn't true. Yahoo does not have lotteries. Has never had a lottery - never will have a lottery. They are not in the business of giving away huge sums of money to people all over the world. This is spam, and now that you've opened it and read it, you will get more, for opening this triggers a notice to the spammer that there is a real, live email address. Just click on spam on this one, and all the others to come. Think a minute! Did you enter a lottery? And if you did, why would you pay $350 to get a prize. Duh! This is a scam. Delete this email!

Answer 5

Scam. If you didn't enter it, you couldn't have won it.
And since it looks too good to be true, it very likely is.
And finally, why on earth would the Australian Lottery (which isn't right anyway, since it should be the Australian State Lottery) be offering a payout in US dollars? Via a regional office in Nigeria? If it was a letter, it would be forced to have SCAM written across it in big red letters.

Answer 6

If I had answered all these I would be multi millionaire at least, they come in every week in some form or other as well as the ones needing help in assisting in the allocation and receipt of funds from Africa. Best thing is don't open press the delete button, if you tried to answer you would find that it would cost you a fee to access the funds. Think how much they could make by just a few supplying them with access fees alone.

Answer 7

I'm from Australia and actually we don't have a National Lottery - so its a fake! Good way to check for a scam - if you didn't enter, you can't win. I got one for a Spanish lottery, telling me I won hundreds of thousands of Euros, but knew it was a fake so didn't go any further.
So they come in from all over the world.

Answer 8

It's a scam, period .You didn’t enter a lottery and all you are going to win is an empty bank account and more trouble than you ever dreamed of. Possibly a “courier” bill for a few thousand to “deliver” a “prize” you’ll never see. If you want to bother, forward the fraudulent email to [e-mail], [e-mail], and [e-mail].
FBI: http://www.fbi.gov/
FTC: http://www.ftc.gov/

Wouldn't AUSTRAILIA have it's own mail server???

Answer 9

Listen to Ellie. Definitely a scam.

Answer 10

never answer any unsolicited e-mails telling you that you won something. they are all scams to either steal your identity or get your money from your bank. never give out your social security number or bank account number to anyone unless you know who you are dealing with. these scams are mostly run from third world countries and once they sting you, they are history.