|
In order to view this object you need Flash Player 9+ support! 
|
You're A Winner: Your Prize Is an Empty Bank Account and a Very Red Face.
I imagine that the majority of us have dreamed of winning the lottery. Checking the numbers against your ticket as they come out of a machine, the shock of realising that the D-list celebrity that pushed the button has actually made you a millionaire, it is a common dream that not many of us get to experience in real life. I would also hazard a guess that when you imagine discovering that you have won the lottery, it does not include receiving an email that asks for a sum of money to cover the ‘expenses’ needed to release your ‘unspecified winning sum’.
Thousands of people have had one of these emails arriving in their inbox, claiming that your email address has been chosen as a ‘winning entry’ in a competition to win big money. Often, these emails are fraudulently endorsed by familiar companies such as Google or Microsoft, all in the hope that someone will fall for the scam and empty their bank accounts. The lottery scam is just one of the many hoax emails that are designed to try and part you with your money; some of them are scarily convincing which is why many people have already found themselves out of pocket after believing that they are now a millionaire.
Those who fall into the trap are asked to provide personal details including their full name, home address and even bank account details to ensure that the fake money gets into your account. Some scammers even ask for copies of your passport and driving license, which is enough to ensure that they can comfortably steal your identity, with you helping them along every step of the way.
Some of these scam companies go quite far when trying to prove that you have been picked as a winner, one company even attached a picture of a big pile of cash to put their victim’s minds at ease. Many people reading this would probably laugh at the naivety of the victims of such an obviously bogus scam. However when you consider just how many people end up falling for the hoax, it is obvious that it’s not just the idiots who start planning how to spend their fake cash.
Keep yourself up to date with the most common email hoaxes and head to http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/banking/financialprivacy/p46840.asp