Internet Lottery Scammers Targets Filipino Users

The Embassy of Britain in Manila has cautioned Filipino users about a Cyber lottery fraud committed through e-mail and claiming to be a part of the UK's national lottery.

According to a report issued by AHN on 13 September 2007, Manila's representative Jamie Lopez requested Congress to proclaim such pyramid schemes as crime of financial loss and raise fines for the participants of this scam. The declaration appealed the Congressional Oversight Committee on E-Commerce Law to probe Internet pyramid frauds and initiate corrective legislative steps.

The embassy released warning after getting several queries from Filipino users who had got an e-mail informing them that they had won the jackpot.

Receivers of such messages should be extremely cautious. Generally, another message demanding a huge amount (some hundred pounds) as fees follows these messages. According to the embassy, the fraud was aimed to swindle the user's money.

The e-mail generally requests the winner to give his credit card details in order to process $15 charges. The scam is also being perpetrated via posts, with photocopies of the so-called lottery entries affixed, the embassy informed. Studies on online lottery scams say the racket is actually a phishing scam.

If the receiver replies to the message, the main culprits responsible for the fraud mails send them a few more messages or even telephones them in an effort to draw them further into the fraud. Mostly, the beneficiaries are asked to give their financial information, lots of personal details and also photocopies of driving licenses and passports.

Lopez further mentioned that presently, the Anti-Money Laundering Council, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Securities and Exchange Commission could only caution users and investors to beware of these scams.

Lopez added that these organizations seem ineffective in controlling these frauds that are being pulled through the cyberspace, and as of yet, no bona fide steps have been taken regarding these rackets.

A few of the lottery scams that have been detected are Megafortune Lottery, Mega Lottery International, Sunsweetwin Promo Lottery, Real Exchange Lotto Promo, Twingate Email Lotto International Programme, Utility Trust Agency and World Wide International Stake Lottery.

Related article: Internet Threat Volumes Overwhelm Security Companies

» SPAMfighter News - 10/1/2007