You Have Won the Netherlands Sweepstakes Lottery-Scam!
Summary of eRumor:
You receive an email that says you have won a sweepstakes lottery in the Netherlands. It gives you phone and fax numbers to respond to and arrange to collect your winnings, which are in the millions of dollars. It warns you not to make any of this public ad in fact, if you breach any confidentiality, you’ll lose your winnings.
The Truth:
This is a scam.
It’s a variation of the “advance fee” scams that are rampant on the Internet.
Just in case anyone doubts our assessment, we have numerous versions of this scam letter that have been sent to different people…each with the same “winning numbers.”
There are several variations of the eRumor that use different names for the organization sponsoring the lottery, but most of them claim to be in the Netherlands.
None of those who receives these emails remembers getting into a lottery, but hey, why not go for the money?
The problem is that after you respond to the email, you’ll have one of two exchanges that sound really authentic and then just when you can taste the money, they’ll send you a request for you to pay them (typically about $1,800). They claim that it’s a processing fee and that the lottery commission insists that it not be deducted from your winnings. They ask that it be sent as a Western Union wire transfer.
This is also known by other names such as “The Sunsweetin Promo Lottery.”
Once you send the money, you never hear of them or your winnings again.
If you receive this kind of eRumor or are contacted by anyone using this approach, contact the United States Secret Service at:
U.S. Secret Service Financial Crimes Division
1800 G St., NW,
Room 942,
Washington, DC 20223.
You might also be interested in the Nigeria Advance Fee Scam page.