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Q: Legitimacy of above office ( Answered,   0 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Legitimacy of above office
Category: Miscellaneous
Asked by: bengonzales-ga
List Price: $10.00
Posted: 07 Aug 2006 17:10 PDT
Expires: 06 Sep 2006 17:10 PDT
Question ID: 753619
EUROMILLIONS LOTTERY OFFICE.
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS.
Kruslann st 77, 1098 SJ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

IS THIS "LOTTERY OFFICE" LEGIT??? I received an email saying I won a prize:

In a message dated 8/6/2006 4:24:15 PM Pacific Standard Time,
allan_nester@ivenus.com writes:
Subj: CONFIRMATION OF PRIZE WINNING
Date:8/6/2006 4:24:15 PM Pacific Standard Time
From:allan_nester@ivenus.com
Received from Internet:

EMAIL ANNOUNCEMENT: RESULTS OF THE EUROMILLIONS LOTTERY
30TH JUNE 2006
DRAWS - WINNERS NOTIFICATION

Attention: Dear Prize Winner,
RE: CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR LOTTERY WINNING!

This is your official winning notification issued by
the EUROMILLIONS LOTTERY, organisers of the EUROMILLIONS
LOTTERY and EUROMILLIONS Plus lottery.

This message confirms that you have received from
EUROMILLIONS LOTTERY OFFICE a notification of your
lottery prize winning in the EUROMILLIONS LOTTERY draws
of April 14th 2006 held
at the The
Netherlands Lottery Office.

Lottery Winning No.: 6 15 16 40 43 1 2
Lottery Draw Date: 30 JUNE 2006
Winning Ticket Number: 2 16 35 34

Winning Group: 2ND Prize Winners Draw Number: 114
AMOUNT WON/PRIZE: â,¬ 887,536.10 - PAY-OUT IN EURO ONLY.

Your entry ticket number drew as one of the lucky
winning ticket number for
the EUROMILLONS LOTTERY 2ND PRIZE DRAWS in which three
lucky winners
emerged. You have won a lottery prize amount of E
887,536.10 THOUSAND
EURO.

ABOUT EUROMILLIONS:
====================
The EUROMILLONS LOTTERY is world promotional lottery
program organised by
the joint European states comprising of the United
Kingdom, France, Germany,
Spain, The Netherlands and 8 other european nations as
its partner.
Answer  
Subject: Re: Legitimacy of above office
Answered By: pinkfreud-ga on 07 Aug 2006 17:53 PDT
 
This is a scam. Real lotteries do not notify winners by sending out
email "form letters." Real lotteries do not award prizes by randomly
selecting email addresses. It is best not to respond to such an email;
any kind of response may result in your email address being passed
along for further use by scammers and spammers.

"Scam:   You've won a large sum of money in a foreign lottery you
don't remember entering.
 Status: Real fraud which generally costs its victim between $300 and $2,000... 

Just as the more usual Nigerian scam uses the lure of big money to be
had for little or no effort to hook the unwary, so too do the
'lottery' versions first hypnotize the about-to-be-gulled with visions
of rich windfalls in the offing before lowering the boom. Those who
try to collect their 'winnings' soon find themselves on the receiving
end of e-mails informing them that they have to fork over facilitation
fees before the big payouts will come to them."

Snopes Urban Legends Reference Pages: Whole Lotto Stealing Going On
http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/lottery.asp

More info from Snopes is available here:

Snopes Urban Legends Reference Pages: Lottery Scam
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/info/lottery.asp

These scam artists send out huge numbers of such emails, using various
webmail return addresses. Here is an email that is virtually identical
to the one you received:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:kXhasw1pyeUJ:server11.infn.it/archive-cms-computing/5298.html

Some good advice from New Scotland Yard:

"Lotto frauds are becoming prevalent in the UK with promises of huge
winnings arriving in the form of unsolicited e-mail or letters to UK
residents. Invariably the communication will purport to come from an
overseas lottery and claim that the recipient has been allocated
winning numbers.

The recipient will contact the organisers, whether directly through
telephone, by post or e-mail and will be invited to send money in to
assist in the administration for the release of the winnings. These
winnings do not exist. This is merely a scam and attempt to illicit
money from unsuspecting victims. As the winnings on offer are
substantial, so too can be the advance fees required to release the
funds... If you receive these communications do not answer."

Metropolitan Police Service: Fraud Alert - Lotto Fraud
http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/section/lotto_fraud.htm

More advice, from the UK Office of Fair Trading:

"To avoid becoming a scam lottery victim, remember these points:

- ask yourself 'How could I win a lottery prize if I haven't bought a ticket?' 

- usually, if you win something you don't have to pay anything to
receive your prize

- once you respond to bogus promotions, your name and address is
likely to be placed on other lists for similar scams"
 
Office of Fair Trading: Lottery Scams
http://www.oft.gov.uk/Consumer/Scams/Lotteries.htm

Additional info:

Federal Trade Commission: INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY SCAMS 
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/intlalrt.htm

WorldWideSpam: Online Lottery Frauds and Email Lotto Scams
http://worldwidespam.info/lottery-scams/2006

My Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "euro millions" OR euromillions lottery scam
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22euro+millions%22+OR+euromillions+lottery+scam

I hope this is useful. If anything is unclear or incomplete, please
request clarification; I'll gladly offer further assistance before you
rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud
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