Posts Tagged ‘Online Games’
July 31st, 2010 | Author: Terry Fisher
Most of us have at some point of time or the other found emails in our inboxes with a subject line stating that we have won a huge amount of money in the UK lottery even without having bought any UK lottery tickets. These emails will ask that you quickly get in touch with the person sending the email so that your winnings can be sent to you. The truth of the fact is that these emails are fraudulent and are aimed at getting money out of you.
Real UK lottery operators never send these kinds of emails and people that actually go out and buy UK lottery tickets will already know and realize that the real operators will never send such emails to you. Therefore, before responding to any mail suggesting that you have won a huge amount of money in the UK lottery (or any other lottery), you need to learn how you can distinguish a genuine email from a spam one.
One sign that is easy to find and which will show that the email that you have received is fraudulent is that you should understand that it is impossible to win something in which you are not a participant. So, if you have not purchased any UK lottery tickets, there is no way on earth that you can win the UK lottery. The bad news is that some people are swayed by the thought of winning money the easy way and these people are the ones that will fall prey to the scam emails.
It is also possible to identify a scam email by being alert to the secrecy aspect that is a major part of every scam email. The real operators of the UK lottery are open about their dealings and so everything is spelt out in plain language; the scammers will be secretive and there is no transparency in their dealings. So, watch out for the secrecy element.
So be careful that you do not fall into the secrecy trap and divulge your personal information which will be stolen and then used for illegal means.
Genuine UK lotteries do not work through any claims agents but the scammers use this ruse to dupe you. So be careful that you do not trust any email that says that you will get your winnings through a claims agent.
Lastly, be sure to look at the language used in the emails. Legitimate operators that for example sell UK lottery tickets will not use certain terms such as Winning Notification or Lottery Sweepstakes. If you see these terms then you must realize at the outset that this is a suspicious email.
