CYBEREVOLVED

So, there I am checking through my emails in a quiet break at work, when I get one from *freelotto.com* stating I am a winner several times over, and that all I have to do is click on a URL link and enter the provided PIN.

DATE: 20/9/2009

MEMORANDUM
Office of Prize Administration

DATE: 20/9/2009
TO: B. Sape, Customer Service Manager
FROM: S. Roman, Prize Administrator
RE: Paid & Pending Check Release Status Notification

Pursuant to our discussion, below please find a list of paid and pending winners as well as their respective winning status. Note that the winners who took advantage of the hassle-free F.A.S.T. offer had their winning package sent immediately following the win and status marked to PAID. This includes our most recent $10 Million Dollar winner – Eric Prevost from France.

FIRST NAME LAST NAME CITY COUNTRY AMOUNT STATUS
William Herriott Glasgow UK $1,000,000.00 PAID
Damian Davies Wellington nz $300.00 PENDING
Roger B. Lancaster OH, USA $300.00 PENDING
Nico Mentis Sindelfingen Germany $300.00 PAID
Damian Davies Wellington nz $50,000.00 PENDING
Jennifer Fisher Porterville CA, USA $1,000,000.00 PAID
Claudio Segneri Roma Italy $50,000.00 PAID
M.K. Basha Delhi India $10,000,000.00 PAID
Esther Yoon Toronto Canada $100,000.00 PAID
Ariel J. Las Vegas NV, USA $10,000.00 PENDING
Gareth Connors Kingswood Australia $50,000.00 PAID
Damian Davies Wellington nz $10,000.00 PENDING
Clair Held Sao Paulo Brazil $300.00 PAID
Eric Prevost Calvados France $10,000,000.00 PAID
Joseph Lyddane Waldorf MD, USA $10,000.00 PAID

Now not being so guillable I decided to do a bit of digging first, so I did a google search on the top winner’s name and sure enough I came up with this:- Eric Prevost So by now your probably thinking WOW this ‘has’ to be true right?

WRONG!!

Being someone who is seasoned with over 10 years of telecommunications experience, and one who knows the internet to be the hostile place it truly is, I am not convinced by one SINGULAR and probably engineered news story as evidence to back up this apparent win. So I dig a little further and find a blog entery where another person had a similar win, on a DIFFERENT date to me, but lo!! Check out the list of names in their list?!

Almost identical:-

“You are receiving this message because you joined FreeLotto on Sunday October 21st, 2007, from IP Address 222.172.183.140. When you registered you agreed to receive messages from FreeLotto. FreeLotto NEVER sends JUNK or SPAM messages. We never send mail to anyone unless they requested it when they registered. If you somehow didn’t understand that you were agreeing to receive messages from us at the time you joined PLEASE CLICK HERE TO BE PERMANENTLY REMOVED FROM OUR LIST. In doing so you will also cancel your FreeLotto membership and you will no longer be eligible to play FreeLotto or receive up to $11,000,000.00 in daily prizes. We regret any inconvenience.
Thank you,
FreeLotto Member Services

PAID & PENDING CHECK RELEASE STATUS NOTIFICATION
ACCT # 47330468 / PIN # 118326170
www.freelotto.com/offer.asp?offer=95707&FID=a8c747330468

Dingchao, PCC, a division of PNI, has awarded over seventy-eight million in US dollars to hundreds of thousands of fortunate recipients in 41 countries; creating fourteen millionaires and four ten million US dollar winners. PNI, a sponsor of online sweepstakes, gives away awards of amounts up to ten million US dollars daily. Dingchao Han OF Kunming, review the official listing below to see if you are qualified to receive a check, upon proper submission in accordance with sponsor rules.
FIRST NAME LAST NAME CITY COUNTRY AMOUNT STATUS
William Herriott Glasgow UK $1,000,000.00 PAID
Dingchao Han Kunming cn $300.00 PENDING
Roger B. Lancaster OH, USA $300.00 PENDING
Nico Mentis Sindelfingen Germany $300.00 PAID
Dingchao Han Kunming cn $10,000.00 PENDING
Jennifer Fisher Porterville CA, USA $1,000,000.00 PAID
Claudio Segneri Roma Italy $50,000.00 PAID
M.K. Basha Delhi India $10,000,000.00 PAID
Esther Yoon Toronto Canada $100,000.00 PAID
Ariel J. Las Vegas NV, USA $10,000.00 PENDING
Jamie De La Pena Zapopn Mexico $10,000.00 PAID
Kenneth Barker Benidorm Spain $300.00 PAID
Dingchao Han Kunming cn $1,000,000.00 PENDING
Gareth Connors Kingswood Australia $50,000.00 PAID
Clair Held Sao Paulo Brazil $300.00 PAID”

So there you have it…. this is a spectalar SCAM, and one that only pays the perpetrators of this elaborate scheme! 9/10 for effort, but left too many wholes for my liking…. go pick on someone less intelligent… in the meantime I am sharing my wisdom here on my blog, just in case you less fortunates out there get sucked in….

Moral of this story?

DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ IN EMAILS REGARDLESS OF HOW GOOD IT SOUNDS, IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE…..IT USUALLY IS!