Sunday 19 May 2013

Another advance fee scam targeting the ignorant and incurious

In comes a fairly routine email that you can just tell is leading up to an advance fee scam. It says:
My wife Violet and I Allen Large won 11.3M USD in a lottery 6-49 in July, 2010 and we have decided to donate the sum of 2M USD to you. Contact us via our personal email for more details (violetlarge193@hotmail.com) You can verify our story by visiting the web page below. http://www.ctvnews.ca/n-s-couple-gives-away-11m-in-lottery-winnings-1.570916
The story is, in fact, true. There was a couple called Allen and Violet Large who did indeed give away their lottery winnings but this was in 2010.

I assume that the scammers don't expect anyone actually to click on the link to the web site because if you do, the first thing you see is this:
"Editor's note: This news story was first published in 2010. Internet operations continue to link to this article to solicit funds from unsuspecting targets. The lottery funds have been distributed to charities and there is no reason to pursue any emails you may have received on the matter."
Scammers really DO rely on their victims being ignorant and incurious.

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