tired of the run around

[wmh]

A little help here would be nice??

This is a strange one they have gone as far as giving me certificates showing everything is real, the banks check ok. I cannot find the names on the fraud list either but, I have been exchanging emails with them and the lawyers(Barrister Kenneth Cole & Schmidt Associates ESQ) for about a month. trying to dig through the smoke screen if there is one. I have also spoke briefly with them one the phone but the conversation was broken up and hard to understand. They are now telling me the funds are in Woolwhich Bank and are being held up by the Inland Revenue office (UK) until a portion of the tax fee is paid, then the funds will be transferred. I have emailed them back stating take the tax funds out of the winnings and if you need my ok fax me the form I sign it and fax it back. I am waiting on the reply back on this one it should be coming back in the next 24hrs.



Online English/Irish Roulette
P O Box 657
London, United Kingdom
(Customer Services)

ONLINE WEB NOTIFICATION OF LOTTO WINNINGS:

We happily announce to you the draws of Online English/Irish Roulette, an
Online Web International Program held on Monday 12th December, 2005. Your
email address attached to ticket/serial number IE6098-05,with serial number
IE535-29 drew the lucky numbers:1-15-24-37-42-50 (bonus no. 33), With Ref.
Number:IES/376O05/77, Batch Number: 05/507/IES360 and subsequently won the
lottery in the 1st category.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £880,000.00 (Eight
hundred and eighty thousand pounds sterling) in cash credited to file
ISPR/7563409218/05. This is from a total cash prize of £8,680,770.00 shared
amongst the first nine (9) lucky Winners in this category.

All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World
Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from over 154,000
Unions, Associations and Corporate Bodies listed online.

In view of this, your £880,000.00 (Eight hundred and eighty thousand pounds
sterling) would be released to you by any of our payment offices.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information
confidential till your claim is processed and your money remitted to you in
whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our
precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of
this program. Deductions from WINNING SUM are not allowed until WINNING SUM
has been handed over to the winner. Please be warned.

To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent:

Online English/Irish roulette
P O Box 657
London, United Kingdom
(Customer Services)
Email: onlineenglishirishroulette@uk2.net

All prize money must be claimed in ten working days.After this date, all
funds will be returned as unclaimed.

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please always
remember to quote your reference and batch numbers in every correspondence
with your claims agent. Furthermore, should there be any change of your
address, do inform your claims agent as soon as possible.

Please include your private telephone and fax numbers while replying.

Congratulations once again from our team of staff and thank you for being
part of our promotional program.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Helen Woods
Lottery Coordinator

[George Dixon]

There are a few things to consider:

1. Why would somebody run a "lottery" that doesn't include the need to buy a ticket to enter?
2. Would a reputable company use a free webmail account? Surely they would have a domain name of their own.
3. Why a PO Box and not a regular address and why no contact telephone number?
4. Note use of very scammer-like terms: " To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent" , not exactly a term that is normally used in such a deal.
5. UK Law chambers do not refer to themselves as "Barrister Kenneth Cole & Schmidt Associates ESQ", again a very scammer-like fabrication.
6. Why would a firm of barristers be involved in a matter as simple as the distribution of winnings?
7. The UK Inland Revenue is unlikely to be involved, if it were it would be collecting tax from the Lottery company, not the "winners"
8. The poor old Woolwich, just like the Halifax, seem to be forever picked on by crooks

Sorry, the short answer is SCAM!

[FW Admin]

Hello, wmh and welcome to FraudWatchers.

If you have received any details about the Woolwich bank account that the criminals allege hold the imaginary funds, please PM me the details (or use the Contact us forms) and this information can be submitted to Barclays Bank (who in fact bought out the Woolwich Building Society several years ago) for their investigation. Alternatively, you may approach the Barclays fraud department yourself with this information and your query, and they will advise you themselves that this is indeed a scam.

Any such demand for advance fees is a fraud (hence the name "Advance Fee Fraud") and the scammers will try to be as persuasive as possible (as in the case of all such 'cons') in order to try to convince you and all their other victims of the genuinness of the transaction.

If you click on the link here (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22ticket%2Fserial+number+IE6098-05%2Cwith+serial+number%22&btnG=Google+Search&meta=) you will see that in fact your letter quoted above is far from unique, and that many other people have received identical notifications. This is common practice for this type of scam, and by looking through the results of the above search, I am sure you will also realise this to be the case.

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions you may have of us.

[warriorgirl]

I believe you will find that they will not take the funds from the winnings, but continue to ask you for them. Any taxes would have automatically been taken from the winnings, before you ever received a penny of your money! Just continue to stand firm and send them no money and eventually they will stop asking you for it and move on to greener pastures. (Meaning someone who will pay the advance taxes on fund)

"I have emailed them back stating take the tax funds out of the winnings and if you need my ok fax me the form I sign it and fax it back. I am waiting on the reply back on this one it should be coming back in the next 24hrs."


Listen to all the good advice given here and stand firm!

[Peter van Huys]

It is a scam run by criminals - do not send them any personal information. If they already have your phone number they may call you - though that is highly unlikely because it would cost them money. But if they do just tell them you know it is a scam and hangup the phone. Delete any emails they send you.
You will probably receive more scams from the same or other gangs. They must have found your email address somewhere on the internet. Apart from changing your email address there is nothing you can do to stop these scams being sent to you.
Stay alert!