Be Careful from scam email campaign stating You Won a new BMW 2 Series M240i in a BMW Lottery

Emails are circulating which might make you believe that you have won, for the holidays, a free 2018 brand new BMW 2 Series M240i. However, in reality, a scam email has been received by you, which is trying to collect your personal information.

The scam email campaign which is going on says that you have won a brand new car in a BMW Lottery. Subject lines of these scam emails are like "Claim Your Car and Check With your Winning Code".

The full content of the scam email state that: "Your email has been selected for a prize of a brand New 2018 BMW 2 Series M240i xDrive and a Cheque of $1,500,000.00 USD from the international balloting programs held in USA but the WINNINGS IS FOR EVERYBODY CONTACTED AS A WINNER IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD". The scam email further state that for claiming the prize, you need to contact claims agent via an email with the code BMW:2541256004/25 along with your DELIVERY DETAILS (i.e. by emailing your Full Name, Mobile Number and Delivery Address). In the scam email, name and email address of the claim agent is also given whom you need to contact. Lastly, it has been written in the scam email that "this message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean", to take you in confidence and make you believe that it is a genuine email.

Once the recipient of the scam email sends their info, the attackers usually revert back by asking for more information like social security numbers and other sensitive information. All this information can finally be used by attackers for gaining access to recipient's financial accounts or for performing identity theft on recipient.

In case an email was received by you asking for the personal information, then it is recommended that you should immediately delete the email without responding to it. Else, you might face huge financial loss that may even prove much more costly than buying a brand new BMW.

So the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) suggested a few approaches to avoid becoming a victim of a phishing scam like not replying to a pop up message or an email requesting for financial or individual data; avoid clicking a pop up message or an email having links, unless you are sure about its authenticity; using a anti-spyware/ anti-virus software and a firewall and updating them regularly; etc.

» SPAMfighter News - 1/11/2019