Lottery scams are among the most common scams and although these scams take many different forms, they all have in common that you have won a lottery you never even entered (quite a feat) and that you must now pay money for either taxes or administrative fees in order to claim your prize which never comes.  While it is true that lottery winnings are subject to income tax, no legitimate lottery collects tax money from winners.  They either deduct the taxes from your winnings or turn all of the money over to you and it is your responsibility to pay the taxes.  Also, no legitimate lottery charges administrative fees of any kind for you to claim your prize as well. Here is a copy of a lottery scam email sent in by a Scamicide reader.  As lottery scam goes this one is not very convincing with more red flags than a May Day parade in Russia.  Among the indications that this is a scam are the email address from which it is sent has no relation to the sender’s name, the receiver of the email’s name does not appear anywhere in the email, and it says that it is sent from the Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division of the FBI although no such division of the FBI exists.  The grammar of the email is quite stilted, which may be an indication that this email was sent from a country where English is not the primary language and the logic of the entire email is quite strained.

Here is the email.

From: MR. CHRISTOPHER WRAY <im00*******@aol.com>
Sent: Wed, May 13, 2020 1:09 pm
Subject: Attention Fund Beneficiary!!!
Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division
FBI Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J.Edgar Hoover Building 935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C.
Attention Fund Beneficiary!!!
This e-mail has been issued to you in order to officially inform you that we have completed an investigation on an International Payment in which was issued to you by an International Lottery Company. With the help of our newly developed technology (International Monitoring Network System, we discovered that your e- mail address was automatically selected by an Online Balloting System, this has legally won you the sum of $2.5million USD from a Lottery Company outside the United States of America. During our investigation, we discovered that your e- mail won the money from an Online Balloting System and we have authorized this winning to be paid to you ATM VISA CARD or CHECK.
We have successfully notified this company on your behalf that funds are to be drawn from a registered bank within the world winded, to enable you receive your fund instantly without any delay, henceforth the stated amount of $2.5million USD has been deposited with IMF. We have completed this investigation and you are hereby approved to receive the winning prize as we have verified the entire transaction to be Safe and 100% risk free, due to the fact that the funds have been deposited with IMF you will be required to contact the IMF Office in Benin Republic to settle the following bills directly to the IMF Office,
(1) Deposit Fee’s (IMF INTERNATIONAL CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE)
(2) Shipping Fee’s ( This is the charge for shipping the ATM VISA CARD to your home address)
The total amount for everything is $285.00 We have tried our possible best to indicate that this $285.00 should be deducted from your winning prize but we found out that the funds have already been deposited to IMF and cannot be accessed by anyone apart from you the winner, therefore you will be required to pay the required fee’s to the IMF Office in-charge of this transaction In order to proceed with this transaction, you will be required to contact IMF director in-charge (KARIM BARHOUMI)via e-mail. Kindly look below to find appropriate contact information:
CONTACT AGENT NAME: KARIM BARHOUMI
E-mail address: ( imfoffice019@gmail.com )
You will be required to e-mail him with the following information:
1. Name in full.
2. Address.
3. Nationality.
4. Age.
5. Occupation.
6. Phone No.
7. Present Country.
8. Fax [optional].
9. Email address.
10. Sex.
******************************
You will also be required to request Western Union or Money Gram details on how to send the required $285.00 in order to immediately ship your prize of $2.5 Million USD via ATM VISA CARD or CHECK from IMF. Make your option on how you want to receive your payment, also include the following transaction code in order for him to immediately identify this transaction: EA2948-910. This letter will serve as proof that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is authorizing you to pay the required $285.00 ONLY to KARIM BARHOUMI.via information, in, which he shall send to you, Yours in Service,
Regards.
MR. CHRISTOPHER WRAY
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS (F.B.I)

TIPS

It is hard to win any lottery or contest.  It is impossible to win one that you have never entered.   It also is important to remember that no legitimate lottery requires that you pay them fees to claim your prize or pay them the taxes due on the winnings.  Legitimate lotteries either deduct the income taxes from your prize or they pay you the entire amount of the prize and you are responsible for paying the taxes on your own to the IRS.  In addition, Facebook does not sponsor lotteries of any kind.

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.”

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