Winning.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 1:16 pm

I recently recived this email in my gmail account:

MR. FRANK ANDERSON.
UNION LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND.
REF NUMBER: ULI/653/029/04
BATCH NUMBER: AT-040-SB06-04

Dear Sir/Madam,
We are pleased to inform you that as a result of our recent lottery draw held on the 20th of September 2004. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 27522465896-532 with serial number 652-662 drew lucky numbers 7-14-18-23-31-45, which consequently won in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of â?¬4,000,000.00 (Four Million Euros only)

Note that all participants in this lottery program have been selected
randomly through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 companies and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from all search engines and websites. This promotional program takes place every year, and is promoted and sponsored by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei, Bill Gates of Microsoft Inc and other corporate organizations. This is to encourage the use of the Internet and computers worldwide.

For security purpose and clarity, we advise that you keep your winning
information confidential until your claims have been processed and your
money remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid
double claims and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants. We look forward to your active participation in our next year USD50 Million slot.

You are requested to contact our Lottery coordinator by the email below: unionlottointl@netscape.net. This is to assist you with your winnings and subsequent payments immediately. All winnings must be claimed not later than one month after the date of this notice. 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 and thank you for being part of our promotional program.
NOTE: YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED IF YOU ARE BELOW 18 YEARS OF AGE.
Sincerely yours,

MR. FRANK ANDERSON.
(LOTTERY COORDINATOR)
unionlottointl@netscape.net

Now, feel free to rip into it.

Ferno · Post by **Ferno** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 2:17 pm

I remember getting this.

I deleted it before I even read the third word. But now that I've actually read it, i can say without a doubt that it's a phishing scam. the end of the second paragraph was the big tipoff.

because last I checked Gates doesn't sponsor lotteries. And I never bought a ticket.

here's a page about it: http://www.lindqvist.com/index.php?ID=1618

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 3:56 pm

I've seen these scams before. If you never entered a contest, how can you win a contest?

This one didn't ask for it in the initial email, but alot of scams tell you that you must remit a percentage of the winnings in order to claim them to pay "fees" and "taxes" on your "earnings."

Now imagine this, you are a scammer. Whats the best way to make money? To get alot of people to send you small amounts of money in advance thinking they will get a big "payout." You never send anyone anything after that.

Even better, they might ask for checking or savings account numbers, personal identification numbers, credit card numbers, drivers license numbers, social security numbers, anything that they can use for identity theft (this is for the big time criminal scammers) in order to confirm your "identity." After all, they sent you a winning lottery ticket first didn't they?

Do not respond to this email. Do not communicate with the originators of this email. Delete it and do nothing else. If you so much as reply for any reason, you will be entered, not in another lottery, but in an email list that all scammers share and you will receive an inordinate amount of fake winning tickets and various scams.

Ferno is right, why the heck would Bill Gates of Microsoft authorize a swiss lottery? That doesn't make any sense at all.

Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Admiral Thrawn** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 6:29 pm

computer generated e-mail. The number referenced is a number in their database corresponding to your e-mail address. When you respond with that number, they know that your e-mail address is good and that there is someone on the other end responding to it. At that point, SPAM

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 8:35 pm

LOL @ Sultan of Brunei and Bill Gates!

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 8:43 pm

I just like the idea of some random Swiss lottery that the recipient has no knowledge of

.

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 9:35 pm

Sad thing is lotsa peeps will fall fer it ...

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:46 am

What's even sadder is the overwhelming percentage of peeps that will fall for it will be from this country.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 11:39 pm

Testiculese wrote:What's even sadder is the overwhelming percentage of peeps that will fall for it will be from this country.

Exactly. It saddens me that people believe anything just because it came from the internet. *flashbacks to the start of the 419 scam*