The British Lottery Scam

Typical lottery scam, this one being the "British Lottery" - here is the first email sent to potential victims.

British National Lottery,
28 Tan Field Road,
Croydon,London.
Ref: UK/940X2/68

Dear Selected winner,
This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash Prize of 753,437 Pound Sterling in cash from the British National Lottery Online Draw held on the 25th of April, 2009 in United Kingdom.
We have been sending this notice to you but this is the last as we are about distributing winnings to winners.
The draw was done electronically with several email addresses provided to this office by Microsoft to enhance the utilization of the internet. Your email address was attached to Reference Number UK/940X2/68 and was picked as one of the ten winning email addresses.
This has qualified you to claim the total cash prize Of 753,437 Pound Sterling in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03. This is from a total cash prize of 7,534,370 Pound Sterling shared amongst the first ten (10) lucky winners in this category B.
You are advised to contact the verification department through our assigned claims agent by providing your Reference Number UK/940X2/68.
You are also advised to provide him with the under listed information.

1.Name in full.
2.Address in full.
3.Age.
4.Occupation:
5.Phone No.
6.Winning Email Address
7.Country

This will enable us process your payment processing form.

ASSIGNED CLAIMS AGENT: Mr. Glen Michael
EMAIL: glen4michael26@live.com
TEL.: +447031929820, +447031924510

Quote Your Reference Number as UK/940X2/68 when you are filing your claims.
Congratulations once more from all our members of Staff.

Yours Truly,
Courtney Nichele Jones
(Online Coordinator)

Couldn't really be anymore typical and unoriginal. Poor grammer, no name or anyother personal details on the email and no sign of having to pay anything....yet. My response -

Here are my details
1. Froyd O'Lante
2. 38 Ridgewirth Str. Gatesville Texas
3. 56
4. Retired (I used to be the ex-vice-chairman of [name of oil company here])
5. (688) 456 xxxx
6. f.olante101@googlemail.com (presumably)
7. I live in the USA

Regards

F. O'Lante

All details 100% fake, of course. The next response was long and boring (from a chap called Glem Michaels) and also quite hard to read, but to summarise, it stated I had two options to get my "winnings" - courier or have it wired into my bank account from their "participating bank"
Well courier is too easy - I know how that goes - '...you have to pay for the courier service...' - boring. I wanted to know how they'd get money from me through the second option - bank transfer - so my response is -

i think i will have the money wired into my personal account please.

National Bank in Gatesville TX
RN 111904419
AN 6512872610
Regards
F O'Lante

Of course, need I say, all wholly fake details. The next email from Glen Michaels explained how the scam worked -

However, you are expected to send them the minimum amount required to open an account for you as this would enable them make the transfer. The said amount is not a fee of any sort as it shall be included to your winnings when the transfer is been made. Note that this amount has to be provided by you to the bank through any method deem fit thus you are advised to contact the payment bank for the release of your winning Prize. Attached to this mail is a copy of your winning certificate of award and certificate of deposit at the bank. See below the contact information of the Foreign Transfer Manager.
You are advised to act accordingly.

So they want me to open a bank account with them and pay the minimum fee to open an account? I don't think that could make less sense? On a brigter note they did send me my "certificate of winnings" and "deposit certificate" below -





Hmmm...how professional looking? Yeah right!

I asked if it could not just be transferred into my own bank account, since I did not want to open a new bank account, but alas this was the last time I heard from Glem Michaels. The next email is from the "participating bank" to whom I have to pay my minimum depositing fee.

Attn: Froyd O'Lante,

Good day to you. I am pleased to inform you that your cheque was sent to us from the Lottery Board. However, before we can commence any transfer, a temporary online account has to be activated for you with us which your cheque of Seven Hundred and Fifty Three Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty Seven Pounds Sterling (753,437. 00) will be deposited into.
The next process on the account opening will be made known to you as soon as you fill and return the account opening form attached to this mail.

While filling the account opening form you are required to let us know what account type you have selected, by stating it in the account type column. Please do take note of our various accounts and their minimum deposit. The most suitable for your type of transaction is either savings or current account but you are free to choose any account of your choice.

CURRENT ACCOUNT MINIMUM INITIAL DEPOSIT: $900
SAVINGS ACCOUNT MINIMUM INITIAL DEPOSIT: $750
FIXED DEPOSIT ACCOUNT MINIMUM INITIAL DEPOSIT: $1,200
BUSINESS SAVING & LOANS ACCOUNT MINIMUM INITIAL DEPOSIT: $1,500

I remain yours truly,

$750 to open an account!! A little excessive don't you think? It also contained a standard fake form, just asking for details and your signature. I of course obliged with my fake details and fake signature and duly returned the form, also asking how I get the money to the bank...(I'm guessing Western Union??) Response -

Attn: Froyd O'Lante,

Good day to you. We are in receipt of your details and we have also noted the account type that you have chosen to open. However, you are to send down the required amount needed to open your account with us..

As soon as you send this amount and the account has been activated, your ACCOUNT NUMBER and your PIN NUMBER will be given to you. Only then will you be able to visit our secured e-fund web link. You would be prompted to enter (Account Access Code) i.e your account number and pin number before connection can be made to your account.

For now, your account has not been created until you send down the required initial account opening balance needed to activate or create it.

You are to make the payment to us through Western Union Money Transfer to our receiving accounts officer. Our bank's policy require all payments within a certain limit be made through Western Union to our receiving account officer in charge of international payment for immediate pick-up to facilitate the account opening process. The details below are needed for the western union money transfer.

Name of Receiver: Betty Woodgate
Address of Receiver: London, United Kingdom
Amount to be sent: Depending on the account type chosen by you

Western Union - I was right!!! The email goes on to say I should send a photocopied receipt of the Western Union transfer. Now its time to waste the scammers time. Everytime you make a real transfer Western Union give you a 10 digit control number and a receipt. We obtained a blank receipt, filled in fake details and sent it to them with a fake control number. The scammer then goes to the Western Union office, only to get told the control number isn't valid. Scammer comes back to me and says -

Good day to you. Please note that our account officer Mrs. Betty Woodgate could not get the Western Union Money Transfer that you made to us as there was a problem with the transfer you made to us.

Do revert back to Western Union office to correct the transfer and revert back to us.

My response was to blame it on Western Union and gave them a different control number. Off the scammer goes again to the office, only to get told AGAIN the control number I made up is not valid. Oh dear. Scammer emails me again -

Good day to you. Please note that the last Money Transfer Control Number that you sent to us is not still available.
Do revert back to us with the right number as soon as possible so your account can be opened.
Please note that failure on your path to do this will mean that we would have to report you to the Lottery Board for fraud.
Your swift response to this mail is needed.

Scare tactics like this are commonly used by scammers. I apologise once more and send ANOTHER fake control number. Scammer goes to office again and gets nothing. Replies with -

Good day to you. Please be informed that since we have received wrong control numbers from you repeatedly, we have decided to report you to the Lottery Board as well as Scotland Yard for attempted fraud . The only way you can proof otherwise is by sending us a printed copy of the western union receipt and not all these forged numbers that you keep sending to us.
Note that we only needed the printed receipt from Western Union and not forged numbers or the last copy of receipt you sent which was handwritten.

This made me chuckle, the irony of a 419 scammer telling me he is reporting me for fraud! I let the "lottery board" know that he was scam baited, and I hoped I wasted as much of his time as possible. He replied but I can't really repeat what he said here. Lottery scams are a classic case of Advanced Fee Fraud - if I had made that payment for real, then the scammer would have made up an excuse for another payment to be made - that or he would have ignored any of my mail and never of contacted me again. NO lottery in the world lets its winners know through e-mail, so any lottery emails like this one you can ignore, safe in the knowledge you have not just passed up on financial security.


Back to Scambaiting homepage.