Top Summer Lottery Scams of 2014 – Fraudsters Never Have Vacations!
#3 Will Definitely Flabbergast You
Everyone wants to be a winner and fraudsters know that very well. But cheating people out of money? Where did they learn that from? Anyway, they did and apart from fraudsters, other people hardly ever learn. When they see an email that says, “You’ve Won!” they do not hesitate even for a second to check whether it’s true or not. I understand you want to be rich, I do too, but not like this! Presenting top summer lottery scams of 2014!
#1 Summer Lottery Scam – Facebook Account of the Year Prize!
In the Netherlands, Facebook lottery scams emerged once again this year! In this summer lottery scam, it was stated that Facebook users could win the 2013-2014 Facebook Account of the Year prize. That was all that was written. For more information people had to download an attached PDF document. And you know what happens then, right? They were also told that they won an additional cash prize of £3 million. But in order to process the payments, users had to contact a ‘Facebook Payment Consultant’ and provide any personal information (so that the fraudsters can run their banks dry) before they can claim their massive cash prize. Oh, and did I mention that the users were also supposed to pay advance payments to cover taxes, legal fees, bank charges and other miscellaneous costs? Of course, once the money is paid, it’s gone, you don’t get it back. And the cash prize? Sadly, you can forget about that too!
#2 Summer Lottery Scam – The International FIFA World Cup Online Lottery
Ah the FIFA world cup fever! A lot of FIFA fans around the world and fraudsters took to opportunity of the fact that people will take their scam email seriously. Why? Of course – it’s from FIFA (or is it?). So this summer lottery scam email tells the victim that they have won £500,000 after being selected from a ballot system of three million people. Wow, so (un)lucky you! Victims were asked to contact a “claims agent” in order to start processing the cash prize. Oh, the victims were supposed to pay the processing fees and other payments too…
#3 Summer Lottery Scam – The Jamaican Lottery Scam
This one is about a 55 year old Lorinda Houtchings, who recently got tangled in summer lottery scam for $2.5 million. Lorinda, who is currently taking care of her 79 year old mother, mentioned that she received a call informing her that she was a winner of $2.5 million and a Mercedes Benz from the Publisher’s Clearing House Winner’s International. She instantly believed it because she thought it was one of the many contests her mother had entered. First she was asked to send $205, which she did, then she was asked to send $499 for border pass, which she sent again, then she was asked to send another $500 for a gold stamp, and unfortunately she listened to them and sent them that. They promised that the prize money would arrive the very next day. But the following day something else happened. They told her that the driver was caught for speeding and she was supposed to pay the fine of a few hundred bucks and that’s when Lorinda decided to verify the facts. Fortunately or unfortunately she found out she was a victim of a scam and that the money paid would never be reimbursed and there was no prize money either…this is bad. Real bad.
It’s unfortunate how older people get dragged in such scams, and I’m not sure why fraudsters even target the elderly – I guess because they can easily trust anyone and anything. What hurts me most is that knowing that the elderly (some) are most fragile in their minds; fraudsters don’t care, and they only want to run them dry in their golden years.
