by Author Name Withheld 119

Created on: February 25, 2008

Lottery scams are growing day by day at a terrifying, alarming rate. By reading this article you will understand the mechanisms of these scams, and be able to protect your life and your family's lives.

I have conducted 4 months of in depth research on lottery scams. I have put my own life into serious, immediate danger to help protect the lives of others. I felt that fraud investigators aren't making any effort or awareness, so I must put this matter into my own hands to stop this sick, illegal activity. I provided false information to the scammer such as my name, age, address, and wire transfer banking information, in process of my investigation and research to protect myself from Identity Theft.

When you receive an email in your e-mail box with the subject title containing keywords such as "CONGRATULATIONS!", "Lottery Sweepstakes Winner" "Lottery Sweepstakes" and so on, this is a scam email. Do not open this email! Simply by opening it, the scammer could obtain your personal information and do activity such as taking out loans in your name and fail to pay these loans off, leaving you to the consequences of these actions. Most lottery scams appear from the UK and South Africa, where British Pounds are used for money currency.

The email will tell you to keep your 'winnings' private and confidential. By this, they mean not to go inform the police. They don't want to be hunted down and prosecuted. Who are they to tell you that you cannot tell anyone you have won the lottery?
The email will contain such information like the day of the lottery, batch numbers, bonus number, reference number, the agent's name and the contact details to claim your prize. You will be asked to provide the agent with your full name, sex, age and birthday, occupation, nationality, marital status, and private phone/fax number(s). Sometimes there will be a graphical image in the scam email to make it look true and legitimate.

When the number given to you is dialed, there will not be a lottery board on the other end, but a regular person. When there is a legitimate lottery agent, you would get an automated response to the main system and then press 0, for example, to be re-directed to an agent representative.

If you receive a second e-mail, the scammer will mention you have to pay for a "processing fee" or "legal costs". They state that the winnings have been made in your name and no deductions can be made. This is a lie. Deductions can be made and the only money you will have to pay is to the

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