Bermuda Police Warns Locals about Lottery Scam Emails

The Financial Crime Unit of Bermuda Police Service will like to remind local residents to remain cautious of phishing emails which attempt to be from USAID AND DFID LOTTERY, as reported by Bermudasun.bm on October 4, 2013.

Notably, Bermuda is a British overseas territory in North Atlantic Ocean.

The fake email reads addressed to the "Dear Winner" informs him that THE United Kingdom Department of International Development (DFID) and US Agency for International Development or (USAID) have awarded his email address a sum of $500,000 in the Global development Lucky draw program of 2013. Email address holders, FB (Facebook) account possessors and Owners of Twitter Accounts from all over the world were fed in a programmed integrated random computer from which the recipient's FB Account became one of the lucky winners. The program is said to be sponsored by USAID and DFID.

To claim their prizes, Internauts are requested to send their date of birth (DOB), address, phone numbers and bank details to the senders of the scam email.

While shedding light on the abovementioned lottery email scam, officials in charge of the investigation said that USAID and DFID will never tell you that you have won a prize unless you have participated in a lottery contest. They will never ask your personal and financial information in order to claim your winning prize.

Lottery scams will often use the names of legitimate overseas lotteries or agencies because even if you do some superficial research, the scam email will look real. For example, the names of USAID and DFID are being used in the above case, which are actually legitimate government bodies.

Hence, to avoid being victimized from such lottery scams, simply follow these steps: Firstly, do not open any suspicious or unsolicited emails (spam). Secondly, do not send any personal or financial details to the scammers and delete the mail immediately. And in case, you have sent money to a lottery or sweepstakes promotion and realized later that it was a scam email then report the matter to the Financial Crime Unit on its hotline number or via email to fraud2@bps.bm.

» SPAMfighter News - 10/15/2013