I wanted to warn you about a scam that is going around in case you did not already know. This applies to readers in the UK. and concerns the National Lottery.
Many of you probably play the lottery and some of you might even do so online as I do myself from time to time. So, be warned if you get a "winners notification" sent via e-mail. It is a total and utter scam.
I received one myself yesterday and for a moment it did make me wonder, after all, as I have said above, I do play online from time to time. The e-mail at first glance looks pretty genuine. I was told for instance that I had won £650 and that I could call at the offices to collect my winnings or claim by post and the prize would be delivered by courier.
However, a couple of things immediately alerted me. One was the fact that the heading said "you have won on are lottery" Note the "are" and not "our. " The second thing was even more obvious. It said I had won on Thunderball. I never play Thunderball! If I do not play it, then I could not possibly have won on it.
I have sent a copy of the email I received off to the National Lottery so that they have the e-mail address of the person who contacted me. They are aware of the situation and under "contact us" they have put a piece about these scams. If you do win playing online, the National Lottery will e-mail you but they never put the amount that you have won and never ask you for personal details.
However, I am very worried that other people might fall for it and come unstuck. From what I understand these people pose as "agents" for the National Lottery, ask you for a handling fee and then disappear without trace. Naturally you never get to see any money!
There are probably many such people out there running the same sort of scam but I can only warn you about the one that contacted me. So if you hear from someone calling themselves Gabriel Harrington and giving an email address as ureach.com - delete it and ignore. It is not genuine.
18 comments:
Thank you Jeannette for the warning. I do play the lottery on-line so it was great for the warning.
Hope you and mike are ok.
love Joanne
Thanks for the warning J...I don't play online but some of my friends do...so will pass it on to them.....Ally
My husband and I always play on-line and yesterday when I was 'adding funds' I noticed there was a warning at the top of the site.
We have won a couple of times on the lottery and they do send an e-mail but when you open it they don't tell you how much you have won, you have to log-on to the site first and put your password in of course.
Thanks anyway Jeannette, I'll go back on to the National Lottery site and read the warning now!!
Hope you're feeling better by the way.
Pat
Thanks for this Jeannette I dont actually play on line but know of someone who does ,I will warn her ,honestly the lengths some people will go to ,to take other peoples money.............Jan xx
Talk about scams, the US has tons of them daily...there are so many here that poor people are being ripped off in the worst way...thanks for getting the info out to your UK friends and family...your great!
Many hugs and have a wonderful weekend!!!!
Joyce
Thanks for this warning Jeannette. I had been considering playing the Lottery online, this has changed my mind.
Sylvia xx
Never played online, but THANKS for the Warning!
Aileen...X
Hm..thats wrong, very wrong. sorry for that let down!
love you,
Meg
Thanks for the warning Jeannette - it's scary that these 'cons' manage to get folks email addys.
Hope you are well :-) I don't get your alerts any more :-( mind you, I don't get other's alerts either :-((((
Freda
Hi Jeannette, thanks for the warning, I wonder how many people have been taken in by these scammes? I`ll tell Jim about it too. :o)
Sandra xxxxx
Hello Jeannette! I have just moved to AOL Broadband and was scrolling through the blogs looking to make one up myself. I came across yours and read as much as I could through the tears I had about Pip. Oh, he is a gorgeous dog indeed!
Just wanted to say hello. :)
There is always some kind of junk mail in my in-box I just delete anything I don't think is right. Lots of people trying to scam the innocent. I'm glad you notified the lottery people. Here in Ohio, we had our lottery announce a scam warning on TV for all . Maybe they'll do the same. 'On Ya' - ma
thanks for the warning Jeannette, I will keep my eye out for that one :)....Jules xx
http://journals.aol.co.uk/jules19642001/Itsmylife/
Thank you for the warning. Love Joan.
Thanks for the warning Jeannette. I don't play the lottery at all, so would delete this email if I got it, but I do know that hundreds have been scammed by these people claiming to be from one lottery or another, so it was a good idea to post this warning today.
Sara x
Hiya that scam has reached the USA a friend of mine online showed me it and I told her that's a scam this one had a Yahoo email address and the UK Lottery use their own company email service :-)
Maurice :-)
Thanks for letting us know - that's very observant of you :-) I doubt I would've picked that up!!
I have been getting that email for almost 2 years now. I also get the one where it claims to be from some rich widow who needs help getting her money, and a banker claiming I can get part of a rich man's estate. all scams.
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