I Won 4 Million Euros!
I received an email from one Daniel Jones stating that I have won 4 Million Euros 
Quoting the email (Click here to read the full text of the email),
“Your address attached to ticket number 27522465896-532 with serial number 652-662 drew lucky numbers 7-14-18-23-31-45 which consequently won in the 2nd category.You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of 4,000,000 (EUROS) (FOUR MILLION EUROS)”
And guess who sponsors these random acts of charity?
Once again quoting the email,
“..is promoted and sponsored by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei, Bill Gates of microsoft inc and other corporate organisations. this is to encourage the use of the internet and computers worldwide.”
4 million Euros “to encourage the use of the internet and computers”!
Yeah right!
I sent them a reply to see where this would go. The guy replied back within an hour saying that I need to fax in my full name, address, direct telephone/fax numbers, as well as passport number within two weeks.
Sounds so simple and innocent, right?
Once you read his reply, and you might begin to have seconds thoughts.
Simple Googling revealed this to be a big email scam.
The prize money may vary from 4 million Euro (for the 2nd category) to 5 million US (for Category A), but the scheme of selecting winners (or the sponsors) always remain the same.
“..all participants in this lottery programm were selected randomly through a computer Ballot system drawn from over 20,000 companies and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from all search engines and web sites..”
Fraud Watch International has published a list of 10 variants of the email I received. The contents are more or the less the same, just the senders differ between :
[1] Reverend William Marrow Jnr
[2] MR. Fritz Bernard
[3] Mrs.Jane Ford
[4] Mr. Agbeko Williams
[5] Mr. Ben Martins
[6] Susan Smith
[7] Mr. Daniel Jones
[8] MR. Steve Williams
[9] Ms. Doris Owen
They also publish a list of known lottery operatives, so if your receive an email claiming you won a lottery, you might want to first look up it there. Help others by forwarding any lottery scam emails you receive, to scams@fraudwatchinternational.com
Leslie Kunz Said,
September 5, 2004 @ 7:54 am
Hello i just wanted to thank you for having this site. i got the same SCAM Email and almost sent it in when i thought to search google first before i sent in my Information and i found your site that convinced me that the Email was a Scam. thank you sooooo much for having this on your Page! i knew the email was too good to be True
Maddi Said,
October 18, 2004 @ 7:54 am
Got this one too just recently… have the internet fraud police on their backs now.. was fun stringing them along though! lol
Maddi Said,
October 18, 2004 @ 8:35 am
What I Did:
After I recieved the Congratulations email from a FREE email server (first give away!!) I recieved this email:
> Dear Winner,
>
> Your application for claim of lottery winning prize will be
> duly Processed and settlements be made upon certification of
> your details. Be informed that we have in our possession,
> instruments of payments for the sum of 2,000,000:00 (EUROS)
> (TWO MILLION EUROS) to you. Hence, carefully fill in the
> appropriate information in the spaces provided below to
> facilitate our immediate processing of your claims.
>
> Your funds have since been deposited with a Financial Trust
> Company. Once we receive the requested informations below,
> your claims file will be sent to Financial Trust Company for
> settlement.
>
> THIS FORM SHOULD BE COMPLETED BY THE BENEFICIARY OF THE
> STATE FUNDS FOR VERIFICATION BEFORE TRANSFER.
>
> TITLE…………………………………………….
> FIRST NAME………………………………………….
> LAST NAME…………………………………………..
> REFERENCE NUMBER……………………………..
> BATCH NUMBER……………………………………..
> CONTACT ADDRESS………………………………..
> EMAIL ADDRESS……………………………………..
> DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH………………………
> TEL NO…………………FAX NO……………………..
> NEXT OF KIN………………………………………..
> ADDRESS OF NEXT OF KIN………………………..
> NAME OF EMPLOYER………………………………..
> ADDRESS OF EMPLOYER…………………………..
> TICKET NO/AMOUNT WON………………………….
> OCCUPATION………………………………………..
> MARITAL STATUS……………………………………..
> DECLARATION:
> I………………………….HEREBY DECLARE THAT THE
> ABOVE INFORMATIONS ARE TRUE AND BINDINGON ME.IF AT ANY TIME
> IT IS DISCOVERED THAT I HAVE GIVEN ANY FALSE INFORMATION, I
> WILL FORFEIT MY RIGHTS TO MY WINNINGS.
> FULL NAME………………………..
> DATE……………………..
>
> Accept our congratulations.
> Sincerely Yours,
> Clearance Officer.
> N.B.: WE HOPE YOUR WINNINGS WILL BE USED FOR THE
> BETTERMENT OF MANKIND, AND WILL CHANGE THE LIVES OF SO MANY
> PEOPLE FOR GOOD. NEVER THINK OF WHAT PEOPLE CAN DO FOR YOU
> BUT THINK OF WHAT YOU CAN DO TO UPLIFT THE LIVES OF PEOPLE
Wow! Does it look like someones trying to get my identity?!?!?!
So I emailed him back and said.. hey, can I have a contact number to phone you on.. I need to clarify all of this.
I then recieved this email:
ATTN:WINNER
YOU CAN CONTACT OUR DUBLIN OFFICE ON TEL NUMBER:
+353-876935625.(Mr Pascal Mahlangu) FOR ANY ENQUIRY.
CALL BETWEEN 9AM-6PM EUROPE TIME.
CONGRATULATIONS ONCE AGAIN,
MR JAMES LAMBERT
Hmm.. interesting.. that isn’t even looking like a Dublin number! I emailed him back, saying.. you haven’t given me a correct number.. he emails back and says.. you haven’t tried to contact Pascal as yet.. Hmmmm funny.. how would he know?!?
Anyhow.. I called the number.. This guy answers.. he says.. “hello?” I’m like.. uh Ok.. another give away.. if he was someone special, he would have answered with who he was and where he was from! He told me he was a lawyer… I asked.. is this a scam??! He says “No! It is not a scam of any kind. You have really won 2 Million Euro!!!” Uhh.. huh…
Conversation continued.. He asked for my verification number on the email.. I gave it to him.. I gave him false contact details, fake name etc.. (upon advice of police) and he then told me I would have to send him $4,800 through wire transfer to pay to recieve my winnings. (Alarm bells.. if I won it, I won it.. I shouldn’t have to pay this guy money to get my prize!) Anyhow.. I stayed to play a bit longer. Told him, can’t transfer, no credit card, please give me an address.. so I got his address from him.. I contact the police right away with his false name.. real phone number and supposedly correct address.. the police are now following it up.
I guess.. the only thing to remember is.. if you win money without entering a competition.. it’s all a big scam to give them money.. you won’t see a dime. Report it to the police, internet fraud.. as many people as you can!
Hope this helps people in the future.. it’s such a waste of time for these people trying to scam.. if in doubt.. do a Google search.. they have every scam possible on the search engine!
shin philip Said,
December 26, 2004 @ 10:26 am
It is really great to have this kind of site in the entire land. I receive the same letter from Henry peters with email henrypeters@iol.pt with the same reference and batch number of above sample. Huh… Sad thing for me, I have already sent some informations about my full names, full recidence/office address, phone/fax numbers, and passport/identity card numbers. What will happen to me now? Can anyone help me? this is really disgusting. I was cheated. But thanks to you fine people for having this site – very educational especially to innocent people like me… Good also to 419ers, I hope someday they would all get seize by the authorities….
Nirmalya Said,
December 26, 2004 @ 10:44 am
“..Sad thing for me, I have already sent some informations about my full names, full recidence/office address, phone/fax numbers, and passport/identity card numbers. What will happen to me now? Can anyone help me?..”
Man, you’re in for some (potential) trouble am afraid. Why didn’t you think of Googling this site before you sent them all your personal details? I can only suggest you to be extra careful from now on.
Here’s a very brief list of things that you can possibly do:
[1] Alert your workmates and people at home NOT to divulge out any potentially sensitive information over the phone.
[2] Keep a close tab on all your bank accounts’ activity. If you can check them online, then do so on a very regular (I’d recommend daily) basis. Where possible change the access passwords/conditions.
[3] Create certified copies of most important documents that bear your name, identity numbers, etc. This is important. If at all your identity is “stolen”, then you got to have atleast some documents to proove your identity.
[4] From now, be alert of any suspicious (too-good-to-be-true) mails/emails. If you do receive any, I’d appreciate if you’d let me know, so I can post it here for others to be aware of. As a previous commenter mentioned (see comment by Maddi on Oct 18, 2004 at 08:35 PM), these people usually do get back to you fairly quickly.
[5] If it is possible to change numbers, address, then I’d suggest that (although, that would be an exterme case).
Latoya Said,
June 2, 2005 @ 3:00 am
Certificate of Winning This is to certify that Mrs. Latoya., with serial number: 3772-554 and batch number: 538901/527/BC68 and lucky number: 2752-2465-8966-453. And reference number: 132/756/4509 has won in the second category of UK Premier Latoya has being declared the legal winner of the sum of (Two Million Euros) deposited in our authorized bank in Africa. (Continental Bank for Africa)All other document presented to the bank by UK PREMIER LOTTO ORG. is real and authentic.
Maria Said,
August 29, 2005 @ 6:44 am
I was not so lucky, I did my research on yahoo, I also contacted the FBI, with no response. I have over 50 emails from both the UK Premier Lotto Organization and the Continential Bank of Nigeria. I even received picture ID from the guy at the bank, and I know I should have been smarter, and now I can kick myself, because they did indeed con me out of money. Will I ever believe an email again, more than likely not, has this entire matter taught me anything, the only person that I can trust is God, has this tested my faith, it surely has. Everyone out there that is reading this, please be very careful these people are good.
Swati Said,
November 13, 2005 @ 11:53 am
I got the same Email, Well its amazing How these people try n fool?, Anyways, I have forwarded the mail to Fraudmanagement. Thanks for posting all experiences and this URL specifically.
jhon Said,
February 22, 2006 @ 8:54 am
thanks to all of u. oh my god without ur help i whould have been real trouble. I too received the same mail. but i was pretty sure that it was fraud but u knw big amount was pulling me towards hell. then i had second thought of searching at google. at last i cleared all my doubts n thank you all once again..you people r doing good job..