E-mail Scam Using Coca Cola’s Name Hitting UK Inboxes

According to a news published in Mirror on June 23, 2009, a spam mail purporting to be from Coca Cola is being sent to users' inboxes as it announces a prize of £1 Million from an Internet lottery for the recipient and requests for personal details.

The e-mail cites the British Gaming Board which, say the security specialists, does not exist. Nevertheless, there was something called "the Gaming Board of Great Britain" but that transformed into "the Gambling Commission" in 2005. The fake e-mail also claims that Barclays will assist the recipient with the remittance of the award money.

The e-mail mentions a high-ranking 'remittance officer' named Jane Johnson but spells it incorrectly, a clue that suggests the e-mail is fraud, according to the security specialists. The e-mail ID of Jane Johnson appears differently in different e-mails such as mrs.janejohnson@live.com in some and mrsjanejohnson@yahoo.com.hk in others.

Similarly, the contact details of Barclays appear differently in various e-mails such as transferunit_barclays@hotmail.co.uk in some and department_transferbarclays@hotmail.co.uk in others.

Apart from this particular e-mail, another one is circulating on the Internet, purporting to be from Coca Cola. This gives an invitation to the recipient to join the company as a country representative.

The message then elaborates the duties of the 'country representative' like checking e-mails, dealing with orders and collecting customers' payments. However, to apply, the candidate should be aged 18 years in the least, willing to spend 3-4 hours a week on the job and have the basic experience with online surfing and e-mail. As for remuneration, the employee will get $90 per order, the e-mail states.

Elucidating the point about phony e-mails, the security specialists state that sometimes spotting a scam e-mail is so easy that those behind them hardly deserve to be successful.

Consequently, users are recommended that they should delete the fraudulent e-mails from their mailbox and do not disclose any financial or other personal detail for there isn't any lottery prize or a lucrative job. It is just that the scammers are aiming to grab people's confidential information, the security experts warned.

Related article: E-Crime Reporting Format To Be Launched in July

» SPAMfighter News - 7/1/2009