"2017 Foundation Program" Promotion or Lottery Scams
Recipients of email messages (see a sample below) claiming that they are lucky winners of the “2017 Foundation Program” lottery or promotion draw are asked to delete them, and not follow the instructions in them. The email messages are phishing scams sent by lottery scammers to trick recipients into sending them their personal information, which the scammers will subsequently use in an attempt to scam the same recipients.
Most of the time, personal information receive by lottery scammers and other cybercriminals are sent by their potential victims via phishing scams. Victims of scammers usually ask how their personal information was obtained by the scammers, not knowing that they were the ones who unknowingly gave it to them. Therefore, care should be taken when an email message is received requesting personal and financial information.
A Sample of the “2017 Foundation Program” Lottery Scam
From: Samantha Griffith - Coordinator 2017 Foundation Program
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2017 6:50 PM
Subject: Re: Did You Receive The $5000 Yet ?...Dear recipient,
This is to announce the draw of 2017 Foundation Program held in New York - USA on December 31, 2016.
Your E-mail was among the 5 lucky e-mail addresses that won US$1,500,000.00 and payment will be remitted to you via western union money transfer.
NOTE: $5,000 has already been sent to you and an e-mail notification was sent to your email address to this effect but no response was received from you yet.
This is a reminder notification with the same sending details for the western union money transfer of $5000 - verify the status of the funds by using the western union tracking link below for confirmation:
https://www.westernunion.com/TW/en/track-transfer.html
MTCN: 9882896273
Sender First Name:Sender Last Name:
Amount Sent: $5,000
You will find that the money transfer is ready to be picked up at any Western Union agent location.
For release of the Security Test Question and Answer employed in sending the fund, contact Charles James in Houston Texas now by email: jcharles77068@aol.com
Get back to me when you have concluded with the assigned custodian Mr. Charles James, so I can instruct for another batch of your transfer.
I hope you get this message this time and do the needful ASAP.
Best wishes,
Samantha Griffith
Coordinator.
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Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.