Is there a United Kingdom Sweepstake Lottery?

[cousinlucky]

I just received an Email that I have won 3 million U.S. dollars from the:

EURO-AFRO-AMERICA-SWEEPSTAKE
LOTTERY UNITED KINGDOM
HQ: 1a, Bexon Court Carlton
Nottingham shire Nottingham NG4 1SQ Essex
United Kingdom

I am to contact mikedadall@yahoo.com

to be sent my prize from the First National Bank of South Africa.

Has anyone heard or know about such a lottery or is this just another of those wild Internet scams?

[bigtomrodney]

Yeah you can just ignore that one. Safest bet is if you didn't specifically sign up for something, then it's a scam. This especially looks like a scam. If it was real at a minimum you could expect they wouldn't be using yahoo mail addresses.

[cousinlucky]

BigTomRodney, I figured you or Fingal would be getting back to me on this. I got the Email in a yahoo account that I only have for receiving Linux Journal and a couple of other newsletters. I surely did not sign up for anything. I'm tempted to play along with the scam ( from a library computer ) just to see what kind of information they are attempting to retrieve.

[smolloy]

Pretty much definitely a scam.

It might be interesting to follow along for a while. But be really careful! Use an email address you've created especially for this, and don't give out any information about yourself. Also, don't make up snail-mail addresses or fake names, or anything like that, cos then you might accidentally be getting some other poor innocent into trouble!

[fingal]

BigTomRodney, I figured you or Fingal would be getting back to me on this. I got the Email in a yahoo account that I only have for receiving Linux Journal and a couple of other newsletters. I surely did not sign up for anything. I'm tempted to play along with the scam ( from a library computer ) just to see what kind of information they are attempting to retrieve.

Heh! Yes that's definitely a scam. For one thing Nottingham is definitely not in Essex!! We hold a National Lottery in this country every week, but that email has nothing to do with it. At some stage - to claim your 'prize' - I imagine you'll be asked to part with some money.

In fact, putting part of that (badly faked) address into Google brings up warnings about online lottery frauds. For example this one.

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

Heh! Yes that's definitely a scam. For one thing Nottingham is definitely not in Essex!! We hold a National Lottery in this country every week, but that email has nothing to do with it. At some stage - to claim your 'prize' - I imagine you'll be asked to part with some money.

i never understood that part. how can anyone be stupid enough to pay money to get money? surely you'd figure they could just take it out of the money they'll give you?

[bidi]

I'm just wonder how they managed to figure out "Euro-" (as in European) "Afro-American" (as in, well, American)! If it was just Afro-American or Afro-European (if there is such a thing) it wouldn't have been so bad.

[fingal]

i never understood that part. how can anyone be stupid enough to pay money to get money? surely you'd figure they could just take it out of the money they'll give you?

Ah well ... con tricks work on people who are desperate and naive. If they send out 10,000 emails and get a small percentage of guppies replying to them, they're into some money.

Here's a warning about those con tricks.

If you receive one of these scam emails, it is important that you do not respond to it in any way. The scammers are likely to act upon any response from those they see as potential victims. Although it can be educational and even entertaining to "bait" these scammers, such endeavours should only be attempted under controlled conditions. The people who run these scams are criminals and could even resort to violence and intimidation to meet their aims. You should delete the email without replying. Alternatively, you can forward the email to the address supplied on the FraudWatch International website for further investigation.

[cousinlucky]

You're right Smolloy!! I do not have the devious mind required to put it to this criminal so I'll shy away from any response.

Fingal, thanks for the link I forwarded my 3 million dollar Email to FraudWatch.

I sure could have bought the best Alienware computer available with 3 million bucks.
At any rate the Email changed my day and I learned that there actually is a First National Bank of South Africa.

[GNOME_n00b]

Nottingham shire Nottingham NG4 1SQ Essex

haha that must be the funniest thing i've read all day



cousinlucky
that is DEFINITELY a scam. just bin it!