Saturday, February 23, 2008

Mega Millions Lottery spoofed in scam

The California Lottery announced that the Mega Millions lottery -- where $270 million was won last night -- is now being being used to trick people into cashing worthless checks.

The intent behind this is to get people to cash a bogus check and send the money back to them before your bank, or financial institution of choice, realizes the item is NO GOOD!

Most of the time they prefer you wire them the money so it has disappeared into thin air when the criminal aspect is discovered. Once the money is picked up -- especially via Western Union or MoneyGram -- the sender has little to no recourse.

The intended victim is lured into cashing the check and (normally) wiring the money with a promise that there is a LOT more MONEY (please) on it's way. Of course, more money never arrives and the person cashing the check ends up being held liable. Please note, there are stories circulating about people getting arrested for cashing countefeit financial instruments, also.

From the press release on the California Lottery site:


While eyes are watching to see if someone is lucky enough to capture the $270 million MEGA Millions jackpot tomorrow, California Lottery officials warn of a scam arriving in some mailboxes.

The letter from LOTTO LINE claims the recipient has won USA MEGA MILLIONS and includes a check to be cashed and used to pay administrative fees. The check may look authentic, California Lottery officials say, but beware that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Apparently, this isn't the first (or probably the last) time the California Lottery has been impersonated. Here are the previous alerts, I found on the site about this:

CA Lottery Africa Scam

Lottery Logo Scam

Good Samaritan Lottery Scam

MEGA Millions Mail Scam Fradulent Check Scam

International Lottery Scheme Email Scam

Lottery scams are not the only scams involving bogus financial instruments. Counterfeit checks and other bogus financial instruments are sent to the "unwary" all the time. Known bogus items in circulation are Postal Money Orders, Travelers Express (MoneyGram) Money Orders, American Express Gift Cheques and Visa Travelers Cheques.

A great place to learn about these scams is FakeChecks.org.

The FraudAid people (Annie and team) have an excellent page on their site about lottery scams, also.

Full alert from the California lottery, here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

RE: WINNING NOTIFICATION


Dear Winner Number 9,



We are pleased to inform you that you have been announced as the nine lucky winner of our MEGA MILLIONS’S JACKPOT LOTTERY PROGRAMME held on the 12th July, 2009. Your company or your personal email address is attached to the winning number nine (9) with Batch number: MML-89705, Lotto number: MML-65812 and Winning number: MML-43668.


Therefore, you have been approved for lump sums payout of Ј650,000.00GBP (SIX HUNDERED AND FIFTY THOUSAND GREAT BRITISH POUND STERLING) in cash and have been credited to Ref Payment No: 89680MM. This is from total prize money of Ј6.500, 000.00GBP POUNDS STERLING, shared among the Ten (10) international winners in July, 2009.


To claim your won prize, you are to contact the Financial Controller (Dr. Kenwood Ray) of United Kingdom payment Division. Below is his contact information

This a a mail i received today, sounds like a scam to.

Unknown said...

yo bro i 2 received the same maqil 2day...wot should i do?...
please do reply...

Anonymous said...

Recieved a letter like above but
the bank was in Canada and the check was issued from a ZoomSystems which sells vending machines. Big scam against Mega Millions!