"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam

Marvin and Mae Acosta, the winners of the largest lottery prize in California Lottery history, are not sending email messages to individuals around the world requesting their personal information or money in order to receive a donation from them. Therefore, online users who have received email messages like the one below, claiming they have been selected to receive millions of dollars from the Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Fund, are asked to delete them. This is because the email messages are fakes being sent by online scammers, who are attempting to trick their potential victims into sending them their personal information.

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Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation Scam

Once the online scammers have received their potential victims' information, they will use it to contact the same potential victims and attempt to scam them. The scammers will then ask their potential victims to send them money in order to collect their so-called donation. But, if the money is sent, the scammers will take it and disappear, leaving the victims broke and depressed. The scammers will also sell their potential victims' information to other scammers, so the same victims will be contacted multiple times.

Remember, once you asked to send personal information or money in order to receive a donation via an unsolicited email message, it is an online scammer attempting to rob you.

The "Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation" Scam

From: fwesson@aqmd.gov:

Mr. Acosta donates to you.

Its heart warming to receive a response from you, but first, we will love to introduce our selves, I am Marvin Acosta , and my wife's name is Mae Acosta, we are the Chino Hills Power-ball Jackpot Winners of one-third of the historic, world record-breaking Power-ball jackpot of $1.58 Billion on January 13th 2016, and we finally came out to claim our share of the prize on July 19th 2016, which was an incredible $528.8 million, after which we were given a lump sum cash payment of $327,835,000.

We actually left the States after claiming our money and we are currently here in Luxembourg because we needed privacy and due to some previous stories we heard about some previous winners" we decided to come down here on a long vacation and to help others by donating part of our gift from God, and we also want it to be a private donation, we never had the plans of coming down here from the United States, but we were advised to do so by our attorney because, she knew there is gonna be a lot of responsibilities that is gonna come along with the win.

We just started our donation project ahead of the Xmas celebration and we are donating the sum of $1,800,000.00 U.S. Dollars to our church and 20 lucky Individuals from our $327,835,000 Jackpot, not because the money is too much but because we want the money to go round, and please, we will like you to assist as much as you can, with this money as soon as it gets to you, most especially, the needy around you, although we are just knowing you for the first time but we believe our heavenly father has directed us to you as we seek the advise of financial advisers and we also prayed and searched over the internet for assistance and we saw your email on a list of registered email addresses that was provided to us by Microsoft and AOL management team from which your email was selected, so if you receive this email from us, we believe you were chosen by God to receive our donation of $1,800,000.00 U.S. Dollars and we also hope that, you are a God fearing individual being a Christian or a Muslim, and as a believer, we believe that good things happens to those people who wait and also believe.

Please be rest assured that, you stand no risk as this is our money, for source and verification please click here on the Acosta family or see the link below

We are doing this not to gain fame as a matter of fact, we have decided to put this away from the media and our sole purpose of doing this was a result of a long talk with my wife who said to me ''Honey, there are families out there who still survive on pay check and some nothing'' I knew exactly what she was talking about because i have thought of it too.

We would love to introduce our selves more and also show you pictures of our lovely family but firstly we would like to know more about our winner by replying back with the below information's:

Your Name:

Country:

Mobile/Telephone number:

Age:

if you have kids:

May the Good Lord bless your heart to be a blessing to your family and your society as soon as our donation gets to you.

GOD BLESS YOU !

Mr & Mrs Marvin Acosta.

Check the comment section below for additional information, share what you know, or ask a question about this article by leaving a comment below. And, to quickly find answers to your questions, use our search Search engine.

Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.

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Comments, Questions, Answers, or Reviews

Comments (Total: 106)

To protect your privacy, please remove sensitive or identifiable information from your comments, questions, or reviews. We will use your IP address to display your approximate location to other users when you make a post. That location is not enough to find you.

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December 3, 2019 at 9:54 AM by
"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam
an anonymous user from: McLean, Virginia, United States

I also just got the same one. Too good to be true.

Delete

November 23, 2019 at 4:47 AM by
"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam
an anonymous user from: Gambrills, Maryland, United States

I got the same text this week, did some research to find this is indeed a scam. Please do not give away your hard earned money to these scammers .

4lucky winners to win 1million? Looks like a whole bunch of folks got the same message.they sent me two messages one with email spelled

giveback@pacificconsultants.com and givback@pacificconsultants.com

3-3

Hello, I won the Powerball Jackpot of $343.8 million, recently we

decided to donate $1,000,000 USD as this year's GIVEBACK project to 4

numbers each, we selected through a computer ballot system and numbers were

drawn from an exclusive list of cell phone numbers submitted to us by the

US TELCO database. Receiving this message notification you are one of the

lucky recipients, follow the guideline below to receive the funds released

to you through our legal representative. Email the following information

for further directives directly to our attorney in charge of issuing your

bank draft:

Your Name:Address:Profession: Reference Code: Age: Email:  To:Anthony

Seepe | AttorneyDirector LLB (UP)Pacific-West Consults

Email: giveback@pacificwestconsults.com[1] The reference code is your

phone number on which you received donation text notification.

Best wishes

Robert Bailey

Email: donations.giveback@usa.com

Links:

-

[1] mailto:Anthony@pacificwest.com

Delete

November 10, 2019 at 8:54 AM by
"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam
an anonymous user from: Washington, District of Columbia, United States

I just received a text from "Robert Bailey" offering me $1,000,000 from his giveback project (donations@givbkt.com). He names Anthony Seepe as his legal representative (Anthony@pacificwest.com). My telephone number was used by this scammer, who said I was one of four lucky winners chosen from the US TELCO database.

TO claim my winnings I was to submit my name, address, profession, reference code, and age to Anthony Seepe. Then I would receive instructions on how to "facilitate the delivery of your funds to your location once issued."

I will not do so, but I hope this comment can help others to avoid this particular scam. Thank you for putting up this warning.

Delete

November 21, 2019 at 2:50 PM by
"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam
an anonymous user from: San Juan, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico

I also received a text a few days ago. Of course, surprised and almost fell for it. I also was thinking about what charity was going to be the one for the money. Anyway, I am glad to have found out about it. Thank you, and hopefully, more people will find out and not be scammed. Thank you again

Delete

November 16, 2019 at 12:37 PM by
"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam
an anonymous user from: Washington, District of Columbia, United States

d**n, I just got this. I sent an email to Anthony@pacificwest to confirm whether it was real or not. Almost had me and I was dreaming up all the things I would do with the money (including contributing to charity). Bummer.

Delete

November 16, 2019 at 9:50 AM by
"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam
an anonymous user from: Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Just received the same text message.

Delete

November 15, 2019 at 2:42 PM by
"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam
an anonymous user from: Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Thank you for confirming this. I'm aware of scammers and their tricks, but this particular one was new to me. I too have been contacted as a 'winner' from "Robert Bailey."

Delete

June 20, 2019 at 5:51 PM by
"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam
an anonymous user from: Kahului, Hawaii, United States

I just got a text from them today!

Delete

June 1, 2019 at 10:47 AM by
"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam
info

giveback@pacificwestconsults.com is another fake email address being used by the scammers

Delete

May 31, 2019 at 6:37 PM by
"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam
an anonymous user from: Houston, Texas, United States

I got a text message to my cell phone stating it was from these people along with the same information requested as others have said they received through emails in the past.

As the old saying goes if it sounds to good to be true.

I did not respond to it in anyway as it seemed fake to me.

Delete

Write Your Comment, Question, Answer, or Review

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Pay the safest way

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Guard your personal information

In any transaction you conduct, make sure to check with your state or local consumer protection agency and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to see if the seller, charity, company, or organization is credible. Be especially wary if the entity is unfamiliar to you. Always call the number found on a website’s contact information to make sure the number legitimately belongs to the entity you are dealing with.

Be careful of the information you share

Never give out your codes, passwords or personal information, unless you are sure of who you're dealing with

Know who you’re dealing with

Crooks pretending to be from companies you do business with may call or send an email, claiming they need to verify your personal information. Don’t provide your credit card or bank account number unless you are actually paying for something and know who you are sending payment to. Your social security number should not be necessary unless you are applying for credit. Be especially suspicious if someone claiming to be from a company with whom you have an account asks for information that the business already has.

Check your accounts

Regularly check your account transactions and report any suspicious or unauthorised transactions.

Don’t believe promises of easy money

If someone claims that you can earn money with little or no work, get a loan or credit card even if you have bad credit, or make money on an investment with little or no risk, it’s probably a scam. Oftentimes, offers that seem too good to be true, actually are too good to be true.

Do not open email from people you don’t know

If you are unsure whether an email you received is legitimate, try contacting the sender directly via other means. Do not click on any links in an email unless you are sure it is safe.

Think before you click

If an email or text message looks suspicious, don’t open any attachments or click on the links.

Verify urgent requests or unsolicited emails, messages or phone calls before you respond

If you receive a message or a phone call asking for immediate action and don't know the sender, it could be a phishing message.

Be careful with links and new website addresses

Malicious website addresses may appear almost identical to legitimate sites. Scammers often use a slight variation in spelling or logo to lure you. Malicious links can also come from friends whose email has unknowingly been compromised, so be careful.

Secure your personal information

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Stay informed on the latest cyber threats

Keep yourself up to date on current scams by visiting this website daily.

Use Strong Passwords

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Keep your software up to date and maintain preventative software programs

Keep all of your software applications up to date on your computers and mobile devices. Install software that provides antivirus, firewall, and email filter services.

Update the operating systems on your electronic devices

Make sure your operating systems (OSs) and applications are up to date on all of your electronic devices. Older and unpatched versions of OSs and software are the target of many hacks. Read the CISA security tip on Understanding Patches and Software Updates for more information.

What if You Got Scammed?

Stop Contact With The Scammer

Hang up the phone. Do not reply to emails, messages, or letters that the scammer sends. Do not make any more payments to the scammer. Beware of additional scammers who may contact you claiming they can help you get your lost money back.

Secure Your Finances

  • Report potentially compromised bank account, credit or debit card information to your financial institution(s) immediately. They may be able to cancel or reverse fraudulent transactions.
  • Notify the three major credit bureaus. They can add a fraud alert to warn potential credit grantors that you may be a victim of identity theft. You may also want to consider placing a free security freeze on your credit report. Doing so prevents lenders and others from accessing your credit report entirely, which will prevent them from extending credit:

Check Your Computer

If your computer was accessed or otherwise affected by a scam, check to make sure that your anti-virus is up-to-date and running and that your system is free of malware and keylogging software. You may also need to seek the help of a computer repair company. Consider utilizing the Better Business Bureau’s website to find a reputable company.

Change Your Account Passwords

Update your bank, credit card, social media, and email account passwords to try to limit further unauthorized access. Make sure to choose strong passwords when changing account passwords.

Report The Scam

Reporting helps protect others. While agencies can’t always track down perpetrators of crimes against scammers, they can utilize the information gathered to record patterns of abuse which may lead to action being taken against a company or industry.

Report your issue to the following agencies based on the nature of the scam:

  • Local Law Enforcement: Consumers are encouraged to report scams to their local police department or sheriff’s office, especially if you lost money or property or had your identity compromised.
  • Federal Trade Commission: Contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or use the Online Complaint Assistant to report various types of fraud, including counterfeit checks, lottery or sweepstakes scams, and more.
  • Identitytheft.gov: If someone is using your personal information, like your Social Security, credit card, or bank account number, to open new accounts, make purchases, or get a tax refund, report it at www.identitytheft.gov. This federal government site will also help you create your Identity Theft Report and a personal recovery plan based on your situation. Questions can be directed to 877-ID THEFT.

How To Recognize a Phishing Scam

Scammers use email or text messages to try to steal your passwords, account numbers, or Social Security numbers. If they get that information, they could get access to your email, bank, or other accounts. Or they could sell your information to other scammers. Scammers launch thousands of phishing attacks like these every day — and they’re often successful.

Scammers often update their tactics to keep up with the latest news or trends, but here are some common tactics used in phishing emails or text messages:

Phishing emails and text messages often tell a story to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment. You might get an unexpected email or text message that looks like it’s from a company you know or trust, like a bank or a credit card or utility company. Or maybe it’s from an online payment website or app. The message could be from a scammer, who might

  • say they’ve noticed some suspicious activity or log-in attempts — they haven’t
  • claim there’s a problem with your account or your payment information — there isn’t
  • say you need to confirm some personal or financial information — you don’t
  • include an invoice you don’t recognize — it’s fake
  • want you to click on a link to make a payment — but the link has malware
  • say you’re eligible to register for a government refund — it’s a scam
  • offer a coupon for free stuff — it’s not real

About Online Threat Alerts (OTA)

Online Threat Alerts or OTA is an anti-cybercrime community that started in 2012. OTA alerts the public to cyber crimes and other web threats.

By alerting the public, we have prevented a lot of online users from getting scammed or becoming victims of cybercrimes.

With the ever-increasing number of people going online, it important to have a community like OTA that continuously alerts or protects those same people from cyber-criminals, scammers and hackers, who are every day finding new ways of carrying out their malicious activities.

Online users can help by reporting suspicious or malicious messages or websites to OTA. And, if they want to determine if a message or website is a threat or scam, they can use OTA's search engine to search for the website or parts of the message for information.

Help maintain Online Threat Alerts (OTA).

"Marvin and Mae Acosta Donation Charity or Donation" Scam