I won another lottery! I’ve actually stopped counting, and I don’t publish every congratulation email I get, since very many of them are clones of eachother, only sent to my different puplicly available email addresses. But this one is special. It is very explicit, and even came with a registration form, official looking, with a fake waterstamp and complete with barcode and all. (There’s a link to it at the bottom of this page.)

It’s just another scam of course. And published here to help others to see that it is, before they start sending in registration fees to the scammers. Read the rest of this entry »

Many readers have contacted me to ask what can happen if you answer one of these lottery scam emails turning up in your mail. And even though I never went forward with any of these myself, Lance Smith has. Lance has alsw been kind enough to forward the email conversation he has had with the Eurobote lottery scammers.

As it turns out, they will try to charge you about 745 US$ or about 500 € before you can claim your lottery prize.

Here are the five email messages returned to Lance after he, fully aware of the fact that this was an attempt to scam him, went forward and started claiming his million dollar lottery prize: Read the rest of this entry »

I kind of like the two special perks in this lottery scam email received today. First, the sum, which might be different in every single mail the scammer send out. Second the fact that they state that I am one of the 25 winners. It’s there to provide us with just the little piece of doubt needed. You know, “Well, even if Nikke also got the mail, it might just be that we both are among the twenty five winners.”

Don’t be fooled. Just trash it.

From: bonolottoprimitiva@mail2world.com
Subject: CONGRATULATION,WINNING NOTIFICATION LETTER
Date: February 12, 2005 16.07.07 MET
Reply-to: fernando_garcias@excite.com

BONO LOTTO/ PRIMITIVA
C/GUZMAN EL BUENO,137
MADRID - SPAIN
FROM: THE DESK OF THE PROMOTIONS MANAGER,
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT,
E-mail: bonolottoprimitiva@mail2world.com

AWARD WINNING NOTIFICATION LETTER

YOUR REF: LP/26510460037/05
YOUR BATCH: 24/00319/IPD

We are pleased to inform you of the release today, 12th of FEBRUARY, 2005, of the BONO LOTTO SWEEPSTAKE LOTTERY/INTER-NATIONAL PROGRAMS held on the 10th of FEBRUARY, 2005.
Your Email Address Name was attached to the Ticket number- 025 11464992-750 with Serial number 2113-05 drew the Lucky number- 3-18-19-30-32-39, which consequently won the lottery in the 3rd category.

You are therefore have been approved for the lump sum pay out of Euros 394,861.07(Three Hundred And Ninety Four Thousand,Eight Hundred And SixtyOne,Seven cents Only.) in cash credited to the file REF: LP/26510460037/05,BATCH: 24/00319/IPD.This is from the total prize of Euros 10,000,000.00(Ten Million Euros) shared among the Twenty Five (25)International winners in this category.
CONGRATULATION!

Your fund is now deposited with a Security Company EURO SECURITY AND INSURANCE .S.A.. Due to the mixed up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this award a top secret from the public notice until your claim as been processed and your prize money remitted to your account as this is a part of our Security protocol to avoid double claiming award or unwarranted taking advantage of this program by nonparticipants.

All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 100,000 email addresses, names from Australia, Africa, USA, Europe, Asia ,New Zealand, Middle-East and South-North America .As part of our international promotions program, which we conduct every February of every year. We hope with a part of your prize, you will take part in our end of the year high stake euros 150 Million International Lottery.

To begin your claim, please contact the issuing authority, your prize claim agent, MR.FERNANDO GARCIAS,at EURO SECURITY AND INSURANCE .S.A. (Foreign Operational Manager) for processing and remittance of your prize money to your designated account of your choice. Tel: 0034 657 513 533, Fax: 0034 657 606 061. Email: fernando_garcias@excite.com Remember, all prize money must be claimed not later than the 13th of MARCH, 2005.
After this date, all funds will be returned as unclaimed.

Note: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference and batch numbers in every of your correspondence with your agent.
Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform your claiming agent as soon as possible.

Please remember to ask for your prize claim certificate. Congratulations once again from all the member of our staff and thank you for been part of our International Promotion Program.

Best regards,
MARIA JOSE SANCHEZ.
VICE PRESIDENT BONOLOTTO

I’m getting immensly rich! What should I do with all this money I keep winning? I have already won a million Euro at least ten times this year, and today I received the below notice that I have won two more millions.

Now wait… Why didn’t they tell me until now? The draw was in July 2003 and they didn’t tell me about my riches until now? And why have they formatted their mail in such a bad manner?

Of course it’s a scam. The sender (the alleged Eddy McGavin or if it’s Lylian Donald) wants me to confirm my email addres. Then I will go inte their files as a gullable person. After that they will want me to fill out a claims form, and most probably register for a sum that can be just about anything between 100 and 1,000 €. But I won’t. And anyway, I have now breached the confidentiallity of their notice, and disqualified myself.

Ref. Number: 132/756/4509
Batch Number: 538901527-Bc68
Ticket Number: 27522465896-6453
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the Winners in our
International Lottery Program held on the 16th of July, 2003.Your e-mail
address attached to ticket number 27522465896-6453 with serial number
3772-554 drew lucky numbers 7-14-18-31-45 which consequently won in the 2ND category, you have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of 2,000,000 EUROS (Two Million Eur).
CONGRATULATIONS!
Due to mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims have been fully processed and your money Remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid multiple claims and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants.All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 company and 30,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world. This promotional program takes place every five years.
This lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomorate of some
multinational companies in europe as part of their social responsibility
to the citizens in the communities where they have operational base.We
hope with part of your winnings you will take part in our next year Ten
million Euros international lottery.
To file for your claim, please contact our fiducial agent:
EDDY McGAVIN
McGavin & ASSOCIATES
Reply Email :eddymcgavin@netscape.net
Remember all winning must be claimed not later than 19th Feb 2005 .After this date all unclaimed funds will be included in the next stake.Please note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications,remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers in all correspondence.
Furthermore should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.
Note: Anybody under the age of 18 is automatically disqualified.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Lylian Donald
International Lottery (co-ordinator)
N.B: Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result
to disqualification. Please do not reply to this mail. Contact your claims
agent.

If you even for a second or so had your hopes up for ghe grand prize of 1 million Euros in the so-called Loteria EuroBote, I’m sorry to say, I won too. And isn’t it strange? I think this is the tenth lottery I won this year…

Techniqually speaking it was Drinkalizer.com that won, since the email address must have been harvested from the Drinkalizer.com site.

Update: Lance Smith answered the scammers! They seem to settle for 745 dollars, and the full process took over a week. See his mail exchange here.

EMAIL LOTTERY ROLLOUT INTERNATIONAL

Ref. Number: 034/834/1853
Batch Number: 4427-4184-MN 82

Sir/Madam
We are pleased to inform you about the result of the Loteria EuroBote Winners International programs held on the 28th
December,2004.
Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 004098045- with serial number 3282-912 drew lucky numbers 5-18-01-43-00-25 which consequently won in the 1st category, you have therefore been approved for alump sum payout of €1,000,000.00 (One Million Euros)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Due to the mix up of some numbers and names we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money Remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants.

All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 30,000 company and 40,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world. This promotional program takes place every three years.

This lottery was promoted by the software corporation to compensate some few individuals with website and email addresses, we hope that with part of your winning you will take part in our next year EUROPE 60 million international lottery. To file for your claim, please contact our EUROPEAN FIDUCIAL AGENT: MR.MARTINS ALBERTO of EUROBOTES LOTERIA AGENCIA S.A
TEL: 0034-618-157-904
Email:eurobotes@netscape.net.
Remember, all winning must be claimed not later than 26th of February
2005. After this date all unclaimed funds will be included in the next
stake.

Please note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers in all correspondence. Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible. Congratulations once more from our members and staff,we thank you for being part of our promotional program.
Note: Anybody under the age of 18 is automatically disqualified.

Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Anne Jose.
(Lottery Coordinator)

It’s clear that iScammers steal from eachother, implementing ideas that seem to work, just as scammers outside the internet always have done. However, on the web this isn’t such a great idea. After winning five different million Euro lotteries in just a week, people might start to read these winning notifications a bit more carefully.

Then again, there are still new Internet users getting online, and perhaps there are still enough newbies for these iScams to actually pay off.

Here’s the most recent winning notification frome an organization calling themselves Euro Millions Lottery International. The idea that Bill Gates would sponsor a lottery like this is quite entertaining, and that’s the reason it is published here. Read the rest of this entry »

01/11 2005 - I have been exceptionally lucky the last week. This is, I think, the fifth lottery that i won!

I don’t actually publish all lottery scam mails i receive, but the more obviously bogus ones goes up here at once. So, even if the mail below was legitimate, why would they send it to a mailing list instead of just to me? Don’t you think an organisation handling this kind of sums could afford a domain of their own, and not just use spammy sub domains and open email accounts? And the very best… At the bottom of the mail. U.K National Lottery will keep 70% of your winnings! As if there ever where any… Read the rest of this entry »

I just can’t understand why some lottery scammers think that I would believe that someone would pick my e-mail address and assign it to a number, then randomly pick that number and try to send me 650 thousand Euros. But it looks like “Mrs Susan De Meer” or whatever her real name is, thinks I will fall for it.

I won’t of course, since I have no wish to send in a registration fee and then be ditched. What I will do, as I always do when receiving these lottery scam mails, is to publish it in hope that someone will search for the contents in the mail before sending in any money. Read the rest of this entry »

The obvious question to ask yourself when you receive a mail saying you just won 900,000 Euro is to ask yourself if you bought a lottery ticket in that particular lottery. If you didn’t, the chances for winning are less than scares. However, this particular scammer has thought about this. So the mail claims that the “participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from only Microsoft users”. Well, I’m not. So why am I even in? Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry for being a spoilsport, but if you received this lottery scam mail (that looks like a Finnish-Swiss-Brazilian joint venture), I’d just like to warn you against trying to claim any proceedings. Most probably, there aren’t any.

OY, is the Finnish abbreviation for Inc. Keikkaus sounds very Finnish to me, but the addres is in Zurich, Switzerland, the mail is sent off a brazilian site… Besides, a [länk2676:Google search for gives quite a jackpot as far as iScam warnings go. I do hope there isn’t a legitimate company with the same name. Read the rest of this entry »

The Signature Darwin sent me a lottery scam mail that actually has the nerve to use Google’s brand name. I guess I know one scammer who is about to get a swarm of corporate lawyers after him.

Here is the lottery scam mail using the Google brand, such as I received it: Read the rest of this entry »

Lottery scams are bad, but the scam mails for them could be better. (And then they would be even worse…) Who would ever believe this? I’ve never even bought a Spanish lottery ticket. Yet, something calling itself Loteria Nacional feels it has to inform me that my winnings is depostided but that they don’t really know where to send the mony, or as they put it “your fund is now deposited to your name”.

It’s just another of those scams where the scammer wants me to participate in something shady, and thereby be too guilty to claim charges against them when I find out that I have been ripped off. Read the rest of this entry »

It happened again. I won another lottery without even entering!

Seriously, with all the warnings for these types of scams, how can they keep it up? How many gullable people are there out there? Of course, it could be interesting to call one of those numbers… ask them why they use such strange email addresses when notifying their winners, why they mass-mail to “undisclosed-recipients”, why they don’t know my name… Read the rest of this entry »

The lottery scams seem to grow in popularity. Just as with the 419 scams, they attract their victims by the promise of a large sum of money, wrongfully earned, and just as non existing. Since you never actually bought that lottery ticket, you are less likely to presss charges when it turns out you have lost a lot of money (in commissions and administative fees) to the scammers. Read the rest of this entry »