No, there is no Yahoo! Lottery

Thu Jul 9, 2009 1:55PM EDT

See Comments (10)

The message goes something like this:

Dear Lucky Winner, This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of One Million United States Dollars Only (US$1,000 000.00) in the YEAR 2008/2009 YAHOO! Lottery Promotion, which is organized by YAHOO! LOTTERY INC, for the introduction and Launching of the new Yahoo! BETA MAIL which all YAHOO! Subscribers are required to switch to.

Sorry to tell you but, as you might have suspected, it's completely fake. In fact, the only thing legitimate about this message is the address for Yahoo!, which correctly appears at the top of the email.

There is no Yahoo! Lottery at all, of course. The message is simply a thinly disguised ruse designed to get you to give up enough personal information about yourself to pull off an identity theft scam of some sort. Most likely, if you reply to the message you'll be asked for bank account information as well, and possibly a payment from your end to "help facilitate an overseas funds transfer." In any case you'll end up poorer, not richer.

What should you do with such messages if you receive them? Simply mark them as spam in your email reader. If you'd like to file a formal complaint about the message, you can do so on this abuse web page, but there's such an overwhelming flood of junk email reported that little is likely to come of your action.

For more information about this scam, Yahoo! maintains a help page regarding the nonexistent Yahoo! Lottery here. Remember that the come-ons may vary (it may be a Sweepstakes or a Bonus Offer tomorrow), but no matter the specifics, these messages are invariably fake.

Sorry about that.

Comments on No, there is no Yahoo! Lottery

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  • 2 Posted by bella77427 on Thu Jul 9, 2009 3:06PM EDT Report Abuse

    Like it or not there are persons out there who will not realize it to be fake. Meanwhile I am thinking....I didn't enter any lottery therefore I could not have won any lottery.

  • 3 Posted by crapdirector on Thu Jul 9, 2009 3:24PM EDT Report Abuse

    That explains why the Yahoo! lottery kept taking my money and never giving me my winnings. Oh well, I have it on good authority that a nigerian prince is in need of my help and he will pay me handsomely. That should more than make up for my fake lotto losses.

  • 4 Posted by psunjka on Thu Jul 9, 2009 3:54PM EDT Report Abuse

    People who visit this blog are definitely immune to these emails. But, my old aunt (67 ys) is a typical prey for online scam: she came to my home a couple of weeks ago to have a cup of coffee and told me that she has good news. When she came, she was so happy and proud, shaking of excitement. "Honey, I won a lottery, I'm sending you and kids to vacation!!!" I had to rip her heart to pieces explaining that there is no such thing as Microsoft UK lottery, and that she was lucky since she hasn't replied to them yet.

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