I won $2.5 million. oh wait it's a scam.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-02-29 09:44pm

E.A.A.S Lottery Headquaters
Euro-Afro Asian Sweepstake Lottery
An Affiliation Of Watergate.
I.P.P Award Dept.
johannesburg, south africa.
Ref: EAASL/941OYI/02
Batch: 12/25/DC34
Date: 01-03-04
WINNING NOTIFICATION:
We happily announce to you the draw of the Euro - Afro Asian SweepstakeInternational programs held on the 1st of january 2004 in Dakar Senegal. Youre-mail address attached to ticket number: 564 75600545 188 with Serial number 5388/02 drew the lucky numbers: 31-6-26-13-35-7, which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$2,500,000.00 (Two million, five hundred housand,United States Dollars) in cash credited to file PC/9080118308/02. This is from a total cash prize of US $ 25 Million dollars, shared amongst the first Fifty (50) lucky winners in this category.
Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our European booklet representative office in Europe as indicated in your play coupon. In view of this, your US$2,500,000.00 (Two million, five hundred thousand,United States Dollars) would be released to you by our
security firm in Europe. Our European agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact him. All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 companies.
This promotion takes place annually. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements. Please be warned.
To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent:
Mrs.Kelly Moore
Watergate inc
Email: kellymoore12004@fastermail.com
To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your
reference/batch numbers in any correspondences with us or our
designated agent.
Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this program. Thank
you for being part of our promotional lottery program.
Sincerely,
SIR H.J.PONFA
AFRO-ASIAN Zonal Coordinator

----------------
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So does the scam part kick in after I contact them because there aren't any hyperlinks in the email for them to start screwing me with right off the bat.

As for the warning about not letting this info get out because someone else might claim my prize. I like to think that I am just a much more trusting person these days. No one would take advantage of me postings something like this and try to claim money that isn't rightfully theirs.

If someone did happen to claim this prize there wouldn't be any hard feelings on my part since It was never my money in the first place and they must have needed it more than I did.

Any idea on why anyone would randomly choose email addresses and then give the person associated with that email address $2.5 million dollars?

Snopes on Foreign Lotteries

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-02-29 09:49pm

Because they're morons.

Techno_Union · Post by **Techno_Union** » 2004-02-29 10:06pm

Scams are just F'ed up. My brother got a thing in the mail today saying he won 50 thousand dollars. Wow considering he never entered anything.

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2004-02-29 10:20pm

We've been getting some crap from a Nigerian bank or something saying that(in various versions) that we've inherited a fortune of several million dollars from a person with the same name, and they want to make us trustee, but need us to contact them by email and send our account number for transaction.

the_ace · Post by **the_ace** » 2004-03-01 04:39am

These are all Spam mail. If you were foolish enough to actually reply to any one of those your mail box will get hundreds more within 24 hours.
Is is possible to trace the source of these emails and nuke them ?

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-03-01 10:46am

This email actually came as a pair plus another copy from a slightly different email address, all at the same time.

I tagged them as spam and sent them along to let AOL deal with them.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-03-01 11:13am

So when do they ask for your bank account numbers so they can "deposit your winnings?"

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-03-01 11:23am

Darth Wong wrote:So when do they ask for your bank account numbers so they can "deposit your winnings?"

I think this is the slightly improved version. Instead of asking for that upfront they wait until people contact them (the want-to-believers). I think the email looks a smidgen more like it might be true because they don't start off asking for account numbers or money for processing. It's only a minor difference but I bet it help sucks some suckers in.