Recipients of fake text or email messages similar to the ones below, which claim that Mrs. Gloria C. Mackenzie, the 84-year-old woman who won $590.5 million in the Powerball, is donating millions of dollars to randomly selected individuals, is a scam being sent by cyber criminals to their potential victims. Therefore, recipients of the same text or email messages are asked to delete them, and should not respond to them.
If a recipient responds to the fake or text or email message, he/she will be asked to send money in order to receive their so-called donation or grant. But, once the money is sent and received by the scammers, they will take collect it and disappear. Remember, once you are asked to send money in order to receive a lottery prize, donation or grant for a lottery game or event that you did not sign up for, it is a scam.
Samples of the "Mrs. Gloria C. Mackenzie" Donation Scam
From: "Mrs. Gloria C. Mackenzie" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <donationaward10@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2017 11:59:06 -0700
Subject: Donation!
I am Mrs. Gloria C. Mackenzie, the power-ball lottery winner and I have donated $7,000,000.00 USD to you.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bellini Gabriella <GBellini@comune.brescia.it>
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Sent: Tue, 15 Aug 2017 16:21
Subject: Donation to you, Contact these email-->(mrsgloriacmackenzie07@outlook.com) for more info
Persons who were tricked by "Mrs. Gloria C. Mackenzie" donation scam are asked to report it to the police. And, those who were instructed by the cyber criminals to use their credit cards to make payments for their so-called donation are asked to contact their banks for help.