I won the lottery!

[Ait'al]

CONGRATULATION DEAR WINNER OF OUR FREE LOTTO AWARDS OF
(500.000.00(G.B.P) which
is equivalent to ($917,956.00 USD) AND TO CLAIM YOUR WINNING PRIZE
CONTACT YOUR CLAIMSOFFICER BELOW:ticket number:************** under agent
ID: *** and lucky ballnumber,which subsequently won you the lottery in
the 2nd category.Lucky BallNumbers :****************NAME:******** ******Email:**************

In respect to claims, you are to forward the following details to
enable him clear your file for immediate payment:
1.Full Names______________2 Address_________________
3 Age_____________________4 Sex_____________________
5 Marital Status__________6 Occupation______________
7 Phone numbers___________8 Country_________________




Has anyone seen this before? Any Idea what it is? Or what the point is for the people who sent it?

[Hamma]

They call it identity theft

[Ait'al]

Originally Posted by Hamma

They call it identity theft

Damn!

Anyone know a way to do it without them getting away as an invisible person and me getting to sue them for the money. 8)

[321]

They probably sent it from a @hotmail.com account too.

[Baneblade]

Hey! I have a hotmail email...

[NecroSen]

This is called "phishing": they tempt you with a claim that either you've won something or your bank needs your information for security issues. In reality, whatever you send them, they'll try to get you to give them as much information about yourself as possible so they can rip you off and disappear into nothing in the end.

If your account is a Gmail account, you can report it with a mouseclick. Otherwise, I'm not sure what route to take in getting a little justice on them. At any rate, it's best to mark it as spam and toss it away.

I believe they also call it a "419", which explains the anti-scammer page http://www.419eater.com/ .

[Ait'al]

Why 419. And who are you? It is so convenient that you just joined the forum. I bet you're part of it!!!

[Hamma]

Originally Posted by Ait'al

Why 419. And who are you? It is so convenient that you just joined the forum. I bet you're part of it!!!

Calm down.. ease off the crack

[mojinko]

I'm kinda glad I get those in my inbox, makes me feel like I have contacts when I get 10 undread messages every time I log into gmail.
But no, really, those phissure(wording?) adds get past my spam blockers so easily it's not even funny. They want my ssn, credit card information, address.. etc. I might as well just tell them my favorite color as well, since they can figure out anthing about you with just one or two of those.

[NecroSen]

Me? I'm a random new guy, here for the trial key in about three hours.

419 is the general term for a phishing scam that originates from Nigeria. The number "4-1-9" refers to a Nigerian penal code related to fraud schemes (http://www.419eater.com/html/419faq.htm), since there are a whole mess of scams of this nature that originate from Nigeria. Chances are your lottery mail came from there, too.

Essentially, it's someone posing as a legitimate business or other source who's trying to get you to give them personal information so they can rip you off. The 419eater website has a bunch of examples of scams and stories of people who were able to scam the scammers and make them pose for funny pictures, carve them little toys and ship them internationally, etc.

Check out the video section. They made a scammer act out the Dead Parrot sketch.

[Ait'al]

Oh, it just seemed "phishy" since that is my phones area code. It freaked me out for a second. LIke all of those websites that already know your area or city and display it to you. I thought you were one of them and already had some info and were testing me for it by using 419 in the comment to confirm it!

"squinting at NecroSen"

But, anyway, is there any way to get the money from them. Like any legal requirments for them to set it up dispite it being illegal. Like they have to atleast make themselves legally liable for whatever reason because of local or internation laws that they are likely using that would let me sue them for it or whatever. It could be fun if there was. Maybe I can be one of the few to succesfully sue them for it and get their money and "teach" *cough* them a lesson! 8)

[Pfooze]

I don't think you can sue them since they have no legal bindings that force them to give you any money.

And by the time you find out where the e-mail came from the actual sender will be traceless.

Just avoid the trouble and mark it as spam.

[Ait'al]

I know. I'm just seeing what anyone knows now. Or if anyone knows anything more about them.