Can you tell me anything about the Westropal Lottery NL?  I have been
sent an e-mail advising me that I have been awarded a huge sum in this
lottery and asking for my telephone/fax details and I assuming that
this is a scam.

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Request for Question Clarification by answerfinder-ga on 29 Sep 2003 09:36 PDT

Dear webb2713-ga 
I'm not finding anything at the moment, but it may be at the start of
this particular scam. Can you provide the address and contact details
for the organisers? I can search on those.
If I do not find anything, would some general advice on these lottery
frauds and examples for you to compare with, be an acceptable answer?

answerfinder-ga

---

Clarification of Question by webb2713-ga on 07 Oct 2003 02:01 PDT

Thank you for your current answer.   The message came from John van
Luke, addressed Postbus 3341 5902 RH Venlon, Netherlands (direct
telephone 0031-630-326-755).  Lottery stated to have taken place on 22
August "partly promoted and sponsored by Bill Gates", participants
selecetd through a computer ballot system drawn from over 68,000
companies and 80 million individual e-mail addresses all over the
world.   It states that my e-mail address was attached to a ticket
number(number and serial number provided) and indicates that I have
won five million US dollars.

I have looked up Westropal through your search agent and it has
directed me to The Mail Archive which I assume is used by a
considerable number of individuals.
This Van Luke message appeared immediately on my screen but when I
followed up links on this site my doubts increased since the messages
sent by some people through this service include dubious(?)requests
for help from Africans, etc seeking financial assistance (and some
adverts for penis enlargement!!)

Any further help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Brian Webb

Dear webb2713-ga

Thank you for your additional information. Google has indexed the site
you found containing the word Westropa since I posted my
clarification.

The site you found is a free archive of public internet mailing lists.
 You will have noticed that there are many other dubious financial
offers on that site. I think you are right to assume it is a scam. Why
post the email message for the world to see with the winning ticket
number?

There is no mention on the Microsoft site of Bill Gates sponsoring a
lottery in the Netherlands.

The email address is westropal@zwallet.com which is a free email
provider. You would think that a genuine lottery company would have
their own domain name and be indexed by the main search engines with
links to it from other authoritative sites.

You are an early recipient of a new scam which is not yet mentioned on
the internet in terms of prevention advice. If you follow this through
you will be asked for an advance fee and you will not receive any
winnings.

The London Metropolitan Police Fraud Alert has some advice on these
lottery frauds
http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/briefings/apr2003.htm

and there are some examples on this site.
http://www.stopecg.org/lottery.htm

A BBC reporter recently investigated a lottery scam from Spain. The
article makes interesting reading.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/10/05/wsimp05.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/10/05/ixworld.html

Additional background information
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31679.html
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/d/dutchlottery.htm

If it is too good to be true, then it probably is.

I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder

Search strategy

Westropal
0031-630-326-755

Variations of lottery, Netherlands, fraud, scam, email

Howdy webb2713,

Did you actually enter a lottery in The Netherlands?

denco-ga

looks like a scam to me
PC World August 2003 -
http://pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,111103,00.asp

some links you might want to check out

http://www.stopecg.org/lottery.htm
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/~wm/wm-lotto.html
http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Nigerian/lotteries.htm
http://www.data-wales.co.uk/nigerian.htm#Lottery%20winner?

i wouldnt give them anything because chances are unlikely that this is
a real win (you might want to give them fake information to kinda
screw them over for trying to screw you over use a 555-XXXX so no one
is harmed.)
too bad im not a google researcher i would have totally had that two
bux now

arigold125-ga

Oh come on! Bill Gates is a name used to scam people. Bill Gates does
not waist his time in sponsoring lotteries. Microsoft, Bill Gates,
Warren Buffett, and any other self made millionaire you hear about on
CNN every third day will not send you a penny unless he/she/it is
interested in a product or service you have. Please don't fall for
this.

My apologies if I am being insulting but there is just no way!