It is important to take into account the fact that with the development of the service industry in the global network, all kinds of fraud are synchronously gaining momentum, one of which is the Internet fraud method often used by cybercriminals to deceive network users under the pretext of winning the lottery. In particular, due to the great popularity of the Euromillion lottery, scammers try to convince the victim of a big win by this very famous European lottery.
In most cases, scammers send an e-mail notification that the alleged user's email address was randomly selected by means of a toss as the owner of a large prize. There are a great variety of forms and contents of letters sent by attackers, but despite this, they have one thing: to get the recipient to believe in a win and to pre-pay a fictitious tax or a commission for processing a financial transaction to receive it. Often fraudsters in time of correspondence with the victim of fraud by e-mail try to find out personal and financial information of a private nature with the purpose of stealing money, for example from a bank credit or debit card.
Confirming that the fictitious winnings in the lottery EuroMillion is often a tool for scammers on the Internet are numerous messages of network users in various social networks forums and services questions and answers. If you received notices of winning the Euromillion lottery by e-mail, SMS or phone call, the following information will protect you from Internet fraud in case of suspicion that you are being tricked by a fictitious Euromillion win or some other European lottery.
How to identify online fraud based on a fictitious winnings in the lottery Euromillion
1. There is no chance of winning the Euromillion lottery without taking personal part in the lottery by purchasing lottery tickets through official points of sale, the official EuroMillions website or a reliable reseller website presenting online online lotteries;
2. For a real winnings in the Euromillion lottery or other European lotteries, you need to buy a lottery ticket for a specific lottery draw, while your game combination must completely coincide with the dropped numbers in lottery draws;
3. Popular European lotteries, including the lottery EuroMillions do not organize any specific draws, the winnings in which are based on the random selection of winners by means of e-mail addresses or telephone numbers;
4. If the participant in the official circulation of EuroMillion was able to win the prize in the lottery, only he has the right to make a decision on his receipt by giving the organizers a winning lottery ticket. In case of a win, the representatives of the lottery EuroMillions do not come into direct contact with the winner without his primary initiative;
5. To receive the winnings of the Euromillion lottery there is no need to pay a commission or any fees;
6. Winnings of European lotteries and accordingly lotions of Euromillion are not taxed. Taking into account this fact, any tax requirements for obtaining a prize are the scam.
How to identify scammers in the Internet
Read the full list identifying the most frequently sent fictitious reports of fictitious winnings used by attackers:
1. Usually, Internet scammers send e-mails with information about a fictitious win using the means of e-mail addresses registered on free e-mail services, for example: @ hotmail.com, @ yahoo.com, @ rocketmail.com, @ outlook.com or @gmail .com, as well as other email addresses unknown to the recipient;
2. Fraud letters are not usually sent to the recipient's name and contain fictitious information with an address to the recipient in the variant "Dear participant in the lottery", "Dear winner" or "Dear prize-winner";
3. In most cases, the letters of the Internet scammers are written in a very bad language with numerous grammatical and spelling errors. Most likely this is due to the specifics of the language of which the fraudster is the carrier, who at the same time expects that the recipient will independently contact using the feedback data specified in the mailing list;
4. Most often, in the variant of a fictitious winnings in the lottery, scammers accentuate the attention of the recipient of fictitious information for the shortest possible time of receiving the prize. Such manipulations are a powerful psychological factor of malefactors keeping the victim in a state of emotional affect and compromising on ill-considered actions without long meditations and without outside consultation;
5. One of the frequent tricks of scams on the Internet persuading the victim to win is "the main conditions for receiving the prize": not the dissemination and confidentiality of the information received. Similar to the previous paragraph, this kind of maneuver is used for abstention of the recipient of a false notice of the gain from contacts with relatives, friends or just acquaintances who may have experienced such a type of Internet fraud;
How to prevent fraud and protect yourself from Internet fraud
In case of receiving an electronic notification, SMS to a mobile phone or a regular letter in an envelope containing information about a major winnings in the Euromillion lottery, any other European lotteries, as well as in other fictional contests or a tote, without taking a real part in one of the listed events, it is recommended not to take the following actions:
1. Send money to bank accounts or electronic wallets of intruders;
2. Switch from e-mails to suspicious web sites scammers;
3. To enter into correspondence and respond to emails of doubtful content;
4. Disclose, through electronic mail, telephone contacts and in writing private financial or personal information;
What actions are desirable to take to protect and prevent fraud in your address:
1. If you have already entered into a suspicious telephone contact or have entered into a questionable character, you should immediately rend any kind of communication with scammers;
2. In the event that the malefactors managed to extract from you any personal or financial information, it is necessary to notify the bank or other organization bearing responsibility for your financial security;
3. In case of fear of more serious fraudulent actions addressed to you, you should immediately contact the law enforcement authorities and provide their representatives with all the information you have about what is happening.
Despite the fact that the power structures of European countries and the whole world are making great efforts to search and detain lottery Internet scammers, the best way to avoid being a victim of scams is to keep your ear sharp, alert and cautious.
Types of fraud in the Internet based on winning the lottery
Millions of people around the world are enthusiastically dreaming of a big lottery win, while for many of them, for lack of vigilance, the insidious machinations of lottery scammers on the Internet can turn the temptation to win the lottery into bitter disappointment, bringing psychological stress and financial losses.
By analogy, at the most important stage of establishing primary communication with a potential victim of fraud, intruders can resort to the following methods:
Notification by e-mail
Scammers make mass mailings on the basis of e-mail addresses or send a personal notice to the emelyl of the alleged victim with information that she miraculously managed to win a large prize in the lottery for which it is necessary to register in the mythical database of the winners and provide personal data to fictitious "lottery organizers" which in no case can not be done.
Call to landline phone
Having studied through the Internet lists of fixed telephone subscribers, scammers ring up the numbers of the owners on behalf of the "official representatives of the lottery" and report false news about the win and use the state of emotional affect of the interlocutor on the other end of the wire to find out the victim's financial data, urging the "winner of the lottery" to pay the commission or tax claims for obtaining a win.
Invitations to websites scammers through social networks
One common type of Internet fraud is the sending of malicious messages to account holders of social networks about an impressive winnings in the lottery, online tote or any competition with cash prizes, which you can make sure you click on the link of one of the scam sites posted to the messages. Usually, scam sites sending out such messages on social networks infect a personal computer or any other device of the victim with a virus program capable of intercepting the personal and financial information of the user of the social network.
Sending SMS via the Internet to your mobile phone
One of the notorious types of lottery fraud on the Internet is the sending of SMS messages to a mobile phone to the alleged victim of a fraud claiming that it was the recipient's mobile number that took part in the big prize drawing and by random choice to its owner was lucky to win a lottery, a fictional contest or a quiz .
It does not matter what type of fraud scammers use to enter into trust with potential victims of fraud, in any of their options, their main goal is to seek your personal and financial information, and ultimately your cash.
Regardless of the method that you use to play the lottery, in no case, you can not disclose your personal information to credit and debit card numbers, as well as other personal data via phone, e-mail, SMS or social networks to strangers.
Existing variants of lottery machinations
Thanks to the media and exposing information on the Internet, more and more people are learning about the existing fraud options under the pretext of winning in various lotteries. In turn, scammers are becoming more inventive, using new and new tricks to deceive the townsfolk. Below is a list of the most common types of fraud and examples of fraud:
Bonus chance to win the lottery
Often, when there is a rollover in the Euromillion lottery (the transfer of the jackpot to the next draw), criminals come in contact with the participants in the draw, claiming that you randomly received a "bonus chance" and became the main winner of the Euromillion lottery. You can be sure that you are trying to deceive, because in the lottery Euromillion does not happen any bonus points, especially after the transfer of the main jackpot. In the event that, for example, there are no owners of winning tickets and there are unclaimed winnings, they go to the special charity fund Euromillion.
Fictitious lottery "VC" and other social networks
Millions of users of social networks, for example "VC" or "Classmates" do not mind, win money in the lottery or in any other competitions with cash prizes. Similar events on social networks are a convenient bait used by Internet scammers who send out fictitious information to owners of social profiles that their account has won a cash prize.
"Charitable funds" of lottery millionaires
Please come back I need you without my soul dying
One known example of lottery-based fraud for obtaining personal or bank data of a person is a tricky trick when fraudsters come into contact with a potential victim on behalf of fictitious charitable foundations organized by lottery millionaires who managed to break the jackpot. Acting in this scenario, the criminals claim that the owners of a large winnings in the lottery want to make donations in favor of the participants in the draws, which were unlucky to receive a cash prize.
Fraud on behalf of the email service
Often, fraudsters cheating on the Internet turn out to be owners of e-mail addresses that receive on behalf of the e-mail service a message of victory in a rally allegedly organized by them.