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UAE residents target of e-mail lottery scam
Scam e-mails that claim recipients have won 1 million pounds (Dh7.45 million) are being sent to UAE residents.
- By Daniel Bardsley, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:12 October 2, 2007
Dubai: Scam e-mails that claim recipients have won £1 million (Dh7.45 million) are being sent to UAE residents.
The e-mails are said to come from the Yahoo/MSN Lottery Inc and say the person's prize money has come from the September 2007 Lottery Promotion.
People who respond are likely to be asked for upfront fees or "taxes" that must be paid before money can be sent to them.
The lottery fund does not exist however and those who respond will lose any money that they wire to scam artists.
There have been many lottery e-mail scams, most of them following the same pattern of contacting someone out of the blue to tell them they have won money.
Real lotteries do not tell winners that they have been successful, instead leaving it up to entrants to claim their prizes.
The scam lottery letters, which have nothing to do with Yahoo - ask people for their full name, address, age, telephone number, sex and occupation.
According to the Law Offices of Thomas Gross, a United States-based law firm that warns of the dangers of internet scams, people should ignore e-mails like the latest one that is said to come from the Yahoo/MSN Lottery.
"Generally, these e-mails originate somewhere outside the US, where the criminals can safely scam you, with virtually no chance of getting arrested or prosecuted," the company said in a statement.
"At some point, they will ask you to pay some fee or fees to claim your prize. A legitimate lottery does not ask this."
Generally, these e-mails originate somewhere outside the US, where the criminals can safely scam you, with virtually no chance of being prosecuted.
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