Florida Lottery Officials Alerting Netizens of Fake Lottery Email Scams

Florida Officials (US) are cautioning netizens of the state regarding fake e-mail lottery scams and urging them to be wary of them.

According to the officials, the e-mail sender pretends as a lottery officer and attempt to access both personal and financial information of the innocent netizens. The fake e-mail "Winning Notification" informs gambler that he has won a prize in a "Special Global E-mail Draw" as a part of the 2010 World Cup Promotion.

Further, receivers of the mail are directed to file an e-mail claim of the prize. One noticeable point is that the winners are requested to not contact the Lottery official or office by phone.

Besides, cybercrooks attach a link to the images of the winners on the official website of Florida Lottery i.e. flalottery.com, along with the name of the Lottery's customer service supervisor.

Disturbingly, security experts and agencies such as Better Business Bureau highlighted that the incidence of fake lottery e-mail scams are rapidly increasing around the world as the festive season is approaching near.

Their opinion proved true when one recent analysis by the GARDAI (Police force of the Republic of Ireland) confirmed the prevalence of fake lottery e-mails and requested its householders to be alert of the Irish-language bogus lottery e-mail messages.

The scam is actually based on a competition named the 'R-Phost Sweepstakes.'

This spontaneous e-mail notifies the receivers that they have won a huge cash prize. However, to claim the money users are required to furnish their address, telephone number, and banking credentials.

If any netizen replies to the e-mail, he is asked to pay a small amount of money as the processing fee for their prize. If users pay that money, scammers further demand for more money.

GARDAI cautioned that the e-mails posed to be just the Irish-language version of the infamous Spanish and Italian lottery frauds.

Conclusively, security experts provide some suggestions that can be followed by netizens to figure out a fake lottery e-mail. Firstly, users should not claim a lottery prize that they have not entered. Secondly, users should keep in mind that no lottery office asks for processing fee, so they should not pay some fee for processing the prize money. Finally, the fake e-mail asks netizens not to inform anyone about the prize until they receive it, which is another suspicious thing that users should be careful about.

Related article: Florida’s ‘CyberCrime Awareness Week’ Promotes Activities for Cyber Safety

» SPAMfighter News - 12/21/2010