Scam operators — often based in the Netherlands, Canada and Nigeria— are using the telephone and direct mail to entice U.S. (and other global) consumers to buy chances in high-stakes foreign lotteries from as far away as Australia and Europe.

There has been much coverage about this company on the internet.

As of today, this company has been around for 10 years. And despite all the complaints that it has received, it is still in business. How could a company that is conducting a "scam business" still "in business"?

Brief Analysis
The message is a scam. It is not from a real lottery organization and the supposed prize money does not exist. Those who contact the bogus "agent" specified in the message will be asked to sent upfront fees supposedly to allow their "prize money" to be released.

Microsoft is the frequent target of scammers, who use victim's ignorance of email technology to spin webs about how Microsoft is "testing the email" or wants to "encourage use of the internet" and therefore is giving away millions of dollars in random lotteries.

I am Mrs. Catherine Michael the Head of Public Relations at Golden Casket Lottery Corporation Limited. I am sorry this letter might have come as a surprised to you as we are supposed to have mailed this letter to you which is in regards to an unclaimed winning funds awarded to you during our Annual International Promotion for the year 2008 but due to the urgency of this information, we have decided to send you this email for update as we are fully aware of the numerous fraudulent letters widely spead over the internet lately.

SOUTH AFRICAN 2010 WORLD CUP BID INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY
"THE PROMOTION MANAGER, INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT ", "MR.MARK THAMBO"

JUST FOR YOU!
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO BE WON IN THE WORLD’S MOST SPECTACULAR LOTTERY!
IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS AND MIGHT BE A LOTTERY SCAM!!!!

If you receive an e-mail telling you that you've won the National Lottery, beware! It's a scam! The National Lottery does not give away prizes by entering random e-mail addresses into a draw. You have to buy a lottery ticket to enter. Where do you think the prize money comes from? It comes from people buying lottery tickets. That's how it works. There would be no point if you could win by some fool harvesting your e-mail address and money being given away without you even entering the lottery in the first place!

A 78-year-old Florida woman fell victim to a foreign-lottery scam, losing $10,000 of her money.But authorities are completely baffled about what they say she did next.

Doris Siegel allegedly went on a five-year scam spree, bilking her pastor and friends out of more than $1 million, according to police.Siegel is in jail on fraud charges.

A new 2010 World Cup Lottery scam that purports to have been sent by the promotions manager of the South Africa World Cup Lottery 2010 is making the rounds. Recipients are informed in an attachment that their e-mail addresses have been randomly selected by a specially designed computer program and that they have won US$2,5 million.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has this advice for consumers who are thinking about responding to a foreign lottery or other potential cross-border scams:

I know I usually tell you how to earn money online but this article will tell you how to save money or not be fooled by this obvious lottery check scam. IF IT SOUNDS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT'S PROBABLY A SCAM!

GLOBAL – Nokia lottery is a scam. I said it a second time just to be clear. Nokia doesn’t do the lottery, or give away large sums of money. Nokia scam seems to be an increasingly popular search term and whilst people are becoming increasingly aware, scammers continue to bait innocent people to part with their hard earned money. Nokia lottery is a scam (there, a third time, just to be super clear).

Victims of the South Africa World Cup scam generally receive an e-mail message announcing they have won the "2010 World Cup Lottery." While the 2010 World Cup will really take place in South Africa, written notices announcing that you have won the World Cup lottery are a scam.

“Congratulations! You may receive a certified check for up to $400,000,000 U.S. CASH! One Lump sum! Tax free! Your odds to WIN are 1-6.” “Hundreds of U.S. citizens win every week using our secret system! You can win as much as you want!”
Sound great? It’s a fraud.

Scam operators — often based in Canada — are using the telephone and direct mail to entice U.S. consumers to buy chances in high-stakes foreign lotteries from as far away as Australia and Europe. These lottery solicitations violate U.S. law, which prohibits the cross-border sale or purchase of lottery tickets by phone or mail.

Volkswagen MOTORS WORLDWIDE LTD.

Internet User Encouragement Promotions

VW Motors

Manchester/Malaysia.

We are officially announcing to you the result of VW Motors Email Lottery
Promotion held on the 30th day of Dec. 2010 as part of our programs to
Launch our multi million dollar office that was commissioned on 5th of
January 2011 in Malaysia and Manchester United Kingdom. Your email was
attached to ticket number VJETTA-UK-VP990003-M4GA with draw number P93VWJ
which consequently won you in the 2nd category prize, your email address
was extracted from our electronic email extraction system which randomly
selected Fifthteen (15) Lucky Winners of which your email address was
among one of the lucky winner. You have therefore been approved for a
payout of a total sum 850,000 GBP (EIGHT HUNDRED & FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS).

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

We also advise that you keep your winning information very confidential as
our security policy demands to avoid double claims/impersonation and
unwarranted abuse of this program by some individuals. The selection
process was carried our through our computerized Email Selection System
(ESS) which selects email from a database of over 600,000 email address
was drawn from all over the continents of the World. This promotions being
the first of its kind will now take place

annually and we hope you will also take part in our next year One Million
Pounds Sterling International Lottery Game. To file your claim, you are to

GLOBAL – Nokia lottery is a scam. I said it a second time just to be clear. Nokia doesn’t do the lottery, or give away large sums of money. Nokia scam seems to be an increasingly popular search term and whilst people are becoming increasingly aware, scammers continue to bait innocent people to part with their hard earned money. Nokia lottery is a scam (there, a third time, just to be super clear).

We’ve been lucky on Conversations where plenty of readers, and inquisitive potential victims have kindly pasted the details of the scam letters, emails and texts they’ve received on our story about the Nokia Lottery Scam. If you haven’t seen them, the story and comments are worth checking out.

We’ve even had comments (unapproved) from the folks behind the scam saying that they’ve received their winnings and moved from London to live in Mexico with their £350,000 winnings. Funny then, that their IP address originates in Lagos, Nigeria.

Nokia is a trusted brand and it’s not nice when people misuse it to scam innocent folks with the lure of a lottery win. The scam, known as an advance fee fraud, nearly always follows the same format. Users get a text or an email saying they’ve won in the Nokia Lottery and that they need to send money, or airtime vouchers (which is like money) in order to receive their winnings. Nokia doesn’t do the lottery, or scams, so please, as Charlie said before, beware.

On a wider note, if you ever get something that looks too good to be true, check it out on Snopes.com – they document lots of online scams.

You can find an official response on the Nokia discussion forums. As they suggest, if you want to receive info about Nokia promotions, then sign up for My Nokia.

BLACK-BERRY® OFFICIAL COMPANY OF UNITED KINGDOM.
THE BLACK- BERRY COMPANY PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD
THE BLACK BERRY TRUST 17 MENDY STREET HIGH WYCOMBE
BUCKS, HP11 2NZ UNITED KINGDOM.
THE BLACK BERRY COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION 2011

Attention; winner,
Your Email-ID has won you £800,000.00 Pounds in our Black-Berry New Year promo. We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual final draws held on the ( 21st December, 2010) by Black-Berry in conjunction with the British American Tobacco Worldwide Promotion, your email was among the 20 Lucky winners who won £800.000 (Eight Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pound Sterling ) each on THE BLACK- BERRY COMPANY PROMOTION However the results were released on the (1st January, 2011) and your email was attached to ticket number (7PWYZ2006) and ballot number (BT:12052006/20) The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 30,031 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. However, no tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world. This Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also Licensed by the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR).This lottery is the 3rd of its kind and we intend to sensitize the public. In other to claim your £8, 00.000(Eight Hundred Great Britain Pound Sterling) prize winning, this has been deposited in a designated bank.
However, you will have to fill the form below and send it to the Promotion manager of THE BLACK-BERRY COMPANY via Email black-berry11@live.co.uk for verification and then you will be directed on how you can claim your winning funds.

CANADA LOTTERY/ EMAIL DRAW
LOTTO 6\49 1550 Princess Street Kingston, ON, Canada, K7M 9E3, UK
Office No 47 Se1 7na ? Balking London, United Kingdom
Tel: +44- 871-996-1285

Dear Email User,

This is to inform you that you have won prize money of ($1,000.000)United States
Dollars for the 2010 International E-mail Draw which was organized by Canada
Lottery/ Email Draw. Ontario 49 collects all the email addresses of the people
that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo, Aol, Walla,
Gmail, Russian Mail and Hotmail and few from other e-mail providers. Six people
are selected monthly to benefit from this promotion and you are one of the
Selected Winners.

NOTE: To confirm that you have the winning number for the

BMW AUTOMOBILE COMPANY.
PROMOTION DEPARTMENT
BMW LOTTERY DEPARTMENT
UK7 DOCK WAY,
SEFTEN BUSINESS PARK
LONDON, T40 4RT
Unite Kingdom
+44, 7010-285-163

DEAR WINNER
Reference Number: BMW/2551256003/23
The Board of Directors, members of staff and the International
Awareness Promotion Department of the BMW Automobile Company, wishes to congratulate you as one of our TEN (10) STATR PRIZE WINNER in this year's BMW

TEXACO INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY COMMISSION
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT
66 PICCADILLY LONDON. W1B 0BH UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)

Ref.Number: EGS/2251256003/05
Batch: 14/0017/1PD
Email:: texacoclaimsunit2010@hotmail.co.uk

Dear winner,

The entire TEXACO PETROLEUM OIL COMPANY LIMITED International lottery organization feel happy to inform you that your e-mail has won prize money of Seven hundred Fifty thousand Great British Pounds Sterling(750,000.00 ) in 2010 prize to encourage organization webmaster Inc. Your selection was based on a computer balloting system drawn from 10 million E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which

With curtains down to FIFA 2010 World cup football in south Africa , many crime artists were good enough make money online and even offline . Selling Fake tickets, fraud email promotions,lottery scam were the main highlights in FIFA 2010 World cup where scammers were able to make millions and billions of dollars . Despite many warning notifications world cup fans were still victims .Now it’s turn for most awaited and upcoming event Common Wealth Games 2010 in New Delhi which are scheduled from October this yea.

But before event kicks off, fraud

Congratulations !!!
Organization
claimsdepartment@live.co.uk
Dear Lucky Winner,

ASIA PACIFIC 2010 WINNING NOTIFICATION

We are Pleased to inform you that your Email Address was selected among the
winners of Asia Pacific International Lottery Promotion.

For more details contact claims manager for full information and direction on
how to redeem your cash prize.
Name=Address= Mobile No.=Sex= Occupation=State
Congratulations Once again !!!

Announcer !!!
Dr Thanaporn Deng
President Asia Pacific Lottery Organization.

If you received any email with the subject "Executive Royal Award", it is a scam. Please do not fall for it!

If you never played any lottery, you will never win a lottery for nothing. There is NO FREE LUNCH!

Millions have lost their money! Don't be another fool!

This is another lottery scam.

-----

RE: AWARD NOTIFICATION
Sat, October 31, 2010 10:14:58 AM
From:
Executive Royal Award [Chat now]

MR. FRANKLIN EDWARD

THE DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION EXECUTIVE ROYAL AWARD.
6115 LILIAN ROAD, FORDSBURG, 2092 P O BOX 90617

MARSHALL TOWN 2107
JOHANNESBURG SOUTH AFRICA.

Attn: