Questions about Lotto Scam Letter

[Maeljin]

So, congratulations to me... I received my very first Lotto Scam letter by postal / snail mail today (old school fraud I guess).

My question is - Where do these lotto scammers get physical addresses from? I'm not listed and tend to be extremely careful (paranoid even) when it comes to my identity and information. Do I need to be concerned about identity theft?

Everything about this letter just screamed "FRAUD"... Here are some warning signs for others

1 - The envelope has no return address...

2 - My home address on the envelope was written in pen. They must have a crappy budget in the International Promotions / Prize Award Dept.

3 - The letter claims that I won a lottery. Considering that I never play the lottery, and the state that I live in doesn't even host lotteries, this is comical.

4 - The lottery amount is for $500,000... Wow, so I guess that it's just luck that my "winnings" came out to a nice round number. How convenient.

5 - The date on the letter is Dec. 20th, 2005 while the actual postmark for envelope is dated Jan. 7th, 2006... but it gets better - I need to act within 3 weeks from the point the letter was sent, or my lotto winnings will be lost forever.

6 - The letter makes mention of a "Clearance Fee" that must be paid according to Federal and International Law, but doesn't mention why/how it must be paid.

7 - When I performed a reverse look-up on the phone number that they want me to call. It doesn't list any business at all (especially not a lottery commision) and seems to be registered as a mobile phone (very likely) with a Florida exchange. The Letter is postmark-stamped from New York City.

[Maeljin]

Oh, a few other signs that I noticed...

8 - Aside from not having a return address... there was absolutely no physical address, seal or any other indication that this letter had come from any other physical address, anywhere.

9 - They spelled my name correctly on the envelope (handwritten), but completely mangled the spelling of it within the typed form letter. You would think that the most popular/common American-English name would be hard to mispell...

10 - They used several different fonts when writing their note. Specifically, they changed to a larger / clearer font when mention that they "want to know why you have not made any effort to claim your money. You have 500,000 sitting here, waiting for you. I don't know why somebody will wait that long to claim there (sic) money." Surely, I am a fool for just letting it sit there. This isn't manipulation, they're just REALLY concerned about my money.

[Arrowhead]

Hi Maeljin, and welcome to Fraudwatchers!

Actually, the postal 419 scam predates the email version. It was very popular in the days before email made it so much easier and cheaper for the scammers to contact thousands of potential victims. They're not real common anymore, but there are still some around.

The scammers can get your physical address in any number of ways; by scanning "whitepages" type listings on the internet, by buying mail lists just like any other spammer, or by trading information with other scammers.

You probably don't have to worry about identity theft if you haven't given out any information like your SSN or your banking or credit card information. And by the way you seem to take care of your personal information, that doesn't seem likely.

Once again, thanks for posting your experience, and your warning information, at fraudwatchers.org.

[nwickline]

My name is Nancy I live in Ketchikan Alaska I enter sweepstakes and contests, So I get all kinds of things in the mail. Just yesterday I receive a letter that I had won the El Gordo Spanish Sweepstakes Lottory. Most of the time its a scam when they ask for money to receive your prize, not this one it wants your bank account information. They want to take all your money.Then this morning I get a call from New York (they say). They had information that I had turned down a $200,000.00 prize and wanted to confirm it. Of course I never would turn down the $. I listened to the lady say they needed $1300 for the money to be released. I told her I am disabled and don't have that kind of money.I wish I did win some money to help others. She then told me that there are sponsers for people like me for a small interest charge, I said heck if I had $200,000 in hand I'd pay them double their back I would even give her $500 if she could make it happen. She said she would see what she could do and call me back,of course she hasn't. Her # is718-622-4471 when I called her back I got a busy signal.If it was a real company someone would answer. There are lots of dishonest people more than honest ones. I would be willing to help catch these people strike while the irons hot,while I've got them on the hook beat them at their own game. How can I? Sincerely Nancy W

[Arrowhead]

Hello Nancy, and thanks for posting!

The El Gordo Sweepstakes is a well-known lottery scam.

As you indicated, any lottery that you "won" but didn't enter, or any lottery that requires a fee to be paid, is a scam.

Recently, we've been seeing the lottery scams combined with fake check scams, and it looks like this one you've been contacted by is headed in that direction.

What they do is offer to "sponsor" you on your "winners fees," "shipping expense" or somesuch. Then they send you a counterfeit check or one written on stolen check blanks. The checks are good enough to fool most bank officials. You deposit the check, wire off their money as requested, and wait for your "winnings."

After a period of time, the bank figures out that the check is fake and comes after YOU for restitution. Some victims have even been prosecuted for passing counterfeit checks.

So, if you're sent a check, take it immediately to your local police and report it to them.

Check around the site here and you'll see other references to this and other lottery and fake check scams.

Sadly, there isn't much we can do about catching them, as they operate mostly out of places where there are ineffective or corrupt police organizations, and authorities in the places where their victims reside generally can't go after them because of jurisdictional issues.

If you enjoy putting the scammers through work without reward, and want to learn to do a little to fight them, but do it in a safe manner, you might enjoy also looking around this website: www.scambaits.com (http://www.scambaits.com).

Thanks again for posting!

[Herepo]

HI ;) how do we get these scammer back at their own game ?

[Herepo]

Hi again ;) does anyone had any corrospondence with a lottery agency called DAYZERS LOTTERY AGENCY, AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS please reply

[Arrowhead]

Hello Herepo,

A google search on Dayzers lottery pulled up about 33,000 hits, most of them scam-related, so it's a pretty well known scam.

In your other post, you mention wanting to get the scammers back at their own game. What you don't want to do is to attempt to get money from them, that would make you a scammer too, and would have you violating laws.

There is an activity called "scambaiting" that can be useful and fun. The idea is to waste the scammers time and resources that they would otherwise be using to scam real victims, by pretending to be a serious victim.

If you're interested in doing this, you should do it safely, using anonymous email addresses and fake information. A great resource for learning how to do this safely is at the website www.scambaits.com. The nice people there will teach you how to do it safely, and will even mentor you if you like. There are also many examples there of successful scambaits, many of which are hilarious reading.

I'd suggest you go there to start.

Good luck!