There is no scam like an old scam and one that has been around for more than four years is resurfacing again.  It is the Google Award scam.  The scam begins when you receive an email, purportedly from Google, in which you are told that you have won a Google sponsored lottery.  In the most recent Google Award scam email being circulated the contest is in honor of Google’s fifteenth anniversary.  When you respond to the email to claim your prize, you are told that all you have to do is to pay for various fees required before your winnings can be released.  These fees may be insurance fees, legal fees or taxes.  The truth is that there is no contest and people who pay these fees, which are generally required to be wired by Western Union or another such service, end up losing the money they pay and they never receive a prize.

TIPS

This is just the latest lottery scam and just about all of them follow the same pattern.  You are informed that you have won a contest that you never entered, but that in order to receive your prize, you have to pay various fees.  The truth is that you don’t win lotteries you do not enter and no legitimate lottery requires you to pay anything to claim your prize.  Taxes are either withheld or are deducted from your winnings.  This particular email looks quite legitimate, but it is not.  It carries the Google logo, but it is easy to copy the logo.  Whenever you get this type of email, the best thing you can do is just hit delete.  Trust me, you can’t trust anyone.