Google Lotto Scam — How to Identify a Phishing Email?

We’re all aware that whilst most lottery games are fair and above board, there are some people who will always take a chance and try to con people out of money with very legitimate-looking scams. Google has fallen foul of this in recent years, so here are all the facts you need to know about Google Lotto Scams and what you can do to spot and avoid them.

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Google Lotto Scam

The most popular one of the lot may well appear in your email inbox. You’ll receive an email telling you that you’ve won the Google Lottery and within it, they’ll ask you to send over personal details.

There have been some cases reported in which scammers will even try to impersonate tax officials or people from the Customs Offices, and in their communications ask you to give extra information and pay them some cash to “release the funds”.

What you need to know is that Google does NOT run any lottery schemes. Your email address has more than likely been picked at random and you should never reply – or send any personal details to anyone offering this service.

Google suggests that if you’ve been contacted in this way, you contact them immediately, forwarding the email and any other information.

Here’s a pictorial example of the kind of email content you might receive. It helps to look at this so you know what you’re looking out for and what to report.

Image courtesy of Google

Here Are Some Other Examples of Google Lotto Scam Communications

You may receive an email message with text that looks similar to this – or is a direct carbon copy:

GOOGLE EMAIL LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL

FROM: INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION / PRIZE AWARD .

PROMOTING INTERNET USAGE OVER THE GLOBE

( WE ENCOURAGE GLOBALIZATION)

FROM: THE LOTTERY COORDINATOR,
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT GOOGLE B.V. Boeing Avenue 44 9459 PE.

RESULTS FOR CATEGORY “A” DRAWS

Congratulations to you as we bring to your notice, the results of the First Category draws of GOOGLE LOTTERY INT. We are happy to inform you that you have emerged a winner under the First Category, which is part of our promotional draws. The draws were held on 28th January 2005 and results are being officially announced friday 11th of Febuary 2005. Participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 2,500,000 email addresses of individuals and companies from Africa, America, Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East, and Oceania as part of our International Promotions Program.

Your e-mail address, attached to ticket number 50941465206-529, with serial number 5772-54 drew the lucky numbers 3-4-17-28-35-44 and consequently won in the First Category. You have therefore been awarded a lump sum pay out of 1,000,000 euros (One million euros), which is the winning payout for Category A winners. This is from the total prize money from 2,000,000 euros shared among the 2 winners in this category.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Your fund is now deposited with the paying Bank. In your best interest to aviod mix up of numbers and names of any kind, we request that you keep the entire details of your award strictly from public notice until the process of transferring your claims has been completed, and your funds remitted to your account. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants/non participants of this program.

Please contact your claims agent immediately for due processing and remittance of your prize money to a designated account of your choice:

To file for your claim,please contact the fiduciary agent.

***********************************************

Mr.David Steevenson,
Proof Trust Agency
0030-699-769-2793
Email:prooflottery@latinmail.com
Sintagma 113
10435 Athens
GREECE.

***********************************************

You are advised to contact the agents by email.

NOTE: For easy reference and identification, find below your reference and Batch numbers. Remember to quote these numbers in every one of your correspondence with your claims agent.
REFERENCE NUMBER: LSLUK/2031/8161/04
BATCH NUMBER: 14/011/IPD

Congratulations once again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our promotions program.

Sincerely Yours,
MRS.ELIZABETH MOUS.
PROGRAM CORDINATOR.

—————————————-

If you have received anything that looks like the above, do not reply. Send the details to Google and report them. Do not enter into any communication with them at all and send the email to your junk folder, after you’ve also reported it to your internet and email provider.

A Further Example of Google Lotto Scam Email Content

Here is one further example. Please also note that invariably, the emails will be littered with factual inaccuracies, spelling mistakes, bad grammar, and inconsistencies, as well as potentially harmful hyperlinks.

The Google Promotion Award Team collects the E-mail ID of all active users online, among the people that subscribed to GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE, GOOGLEMAIL, YAHOOMAIL, MSN, HOTMAIL, AOL, REDIFFMAIL, ALTAVISTA, BIGPOND, FACEBOOK and all the social networks online, among the billions users that subscribe to internet in which your email ID emerged as one of the lucky winners that won £500,000.00 {Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pounds Sterling} through electronic balloting system without the winner applying, we are congratulating you for having been one of the lucky people that won for this month.

A winning cheque of £500,000.00 {Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling} will be issued on your name by our fiduciary agent, and also a certificate of prize claims will be sent alongside your winning cheque. Note that all winners cheque are certified international bank draft,and when delivered and received by you, you can deposit and cash it in any bank of your choice without any delay.

To claim your won prize, please contact the Google Award claims Fiduciary Agent (Mr Grahams Benfield) neatly filling the verification details below.

GOOGLE AWARD CLAIMS FIDUCIARY AGENT

Mr Grahams Benfield

Contact Email: (oxford.anouncer@googlemail.com <mailto:oxford.anouncer@googlemail.com> )

Kindly forward your verification details as stated below to the Fiduciary Agent;

1. Full Name:

2. House Address:

3. Occupation:

4. Sex:

5. Age:

6. Marital Status:

7. Direct Phone No:

8. Country:

9. Ticket Number: 00869575733664

10.  Serial Number: BTD/8070447706/06

11. Lucky Number: 12-12-23-35-40-41(12)

Google values your right to privacy! Your information is 100% secured and will be used exclusively for the purpose of this award only.

Please do not reply if you are NOT the owner of this Email-ID. Congratulations from the Staffs & Members of Google Board Commission.

Note that this email can’t receive replies, so kindly forward your verification details as requested via email to our Fiduciary Agent as stated above (oxford.anouncer@googlemail.com ).

Mrs. Charlene Richards.

Promotion Award Manager.

C2017 Google Corporation.

Website: http://google.org/

We cannot stress enough. Please don’t reply. There is no prize, so please do not send your hard-earned money to the cybercriminals behind the lottery scam. If you send your personal information, these cybercriminals will use it to further scam you. If in any doubt, report these people to the relevant authorities as well as Google themselves.