Lottery scams continue to proliferate and with good reason – they are effective. Phony lotteries are one of the primary scams that year after year result in many people being scammed out of their hard earned money. Below you will find a copy of an email that recently turned up in my email box. It follows a simple pattern. I am notified that I have been declared a winner of a lottery that I never entered. People who respond to emails such as this are told that it is necessary for them to either pay administrative fees or income taxes on their winnings. The truth is that you should never have to pay administrative fees when you win a legitimate lottery and while income taxes are owed on lottery winnings, these taxes will either be deducted by the lottery sponsor or you will be responsible personally for paying the taxes. The sponsors of legitimate lotteries never collect tax payments. It is also important to remember that it is illegal for American citizens to play foreign lotteries.
“WINNING NOTIFICATION/FINAL AWARD
FROM THE DESK OF
EUROMILLIONE LOTERIA ESP
AVD DE LAS CONCHA
MADRID ESPANA
RE: WINNING NOTIFICATION/FINAL AWARD:
ATTN; WINNER,
We are pleased to inform you of the release of the long awaited results of the EUROMILLIONE LOTERIA S.A PROMOTION held on 22th of March 2013 your email address attached to the Ticket No:TK/365\9NL that drew the lucky Winning No Y-871GTH.
You have been approved for a payment of 300,000.00Euros (THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND EURO) in cash credited to File Batch No XQ1017BN This is from a total cash prize of THREE MILLION EUROS Shared among the ten International winners in second categories.
All participants were selected through a Multi international computer ballot system drawn from 98,000
(Ninety eight thousand) names of email users around the world.
To begin your claim, do file for the release of your winning by contacting our accredited agent: Foreign
Transfer Manager: Mr. David Babel
Email: euro_million@aol.com
Tel: 0034-634-075-250
YOUR SECURITY FILE NUMBER IS D1-67/WM4 (keep personal) Remember your winning must be claimed not later than (05-04-2013) after this date funds might be returned to the lottery company as unclaimed prize furthermore should there be any change in your address do inform your claims agent as soon as possible.
Congratulations once again.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Rita Mendez
EUROMILLIONE LOTERIA”
TIPS
Never respond to an email, telephone call or any other communication that tells you that you have won a lottery that you have not entered. Lottery scammers will hound you relentlessly if you start to communicate with them. Do not send any money to anyone who tells you that you have won a lottery. Lottery winners receive money. They do not send money. Don’t let your desire for a quick buck (translated as greed) blind you to these scams. This would seem like easy advice to follow, but for the thousands of people each year who fall prey to these scams, it is important to constantly remind yourself about the telltale signs of these scams.