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Scams

Common Elements

The email or requestor asks for bank account information, credit card numbers, driver's license numbers, passport numbers, your mother's maiden name or other personal information. (Automatic Red Flag!)

The prize promoters ask for a fee (for administration, "processing", taxes, etc.) to be paid in advance. A legitimate lottery simply deducts that from the winnings!

Reply addresses to these scams are usually either to a Yahoo.com or gmail.com or any other public email provider, scammers like to use these free services. Remember if some huge financial institution or legal firm wants you to contact them, they would have a private domain with their own email address.

Most of letters received are written by people who have a poor command of the English language with errors in punctuation, grammar and over use of ellipses (periods, asterisks, dashes, etc.)

When selling an item online, someone offers you more than your asking price, usually to cover the so called shipping costs and they want the item shipped to a different location or another country.

The caller or emailer is a victim and is in another country and now needs your help to return to the United States. Often times requesting you to send funds to them via Western Union.

The confidential nature of the transaction is emphasized.

If you have received any scams by mail, turn it over to your local Postmaster.

Lottery Scams

You've been notified that you won an International Lottery and could receive a check for $400,000(or a similar amount). All you have to do is pay the tax or administrative fee.

Key Points

First, its a violation of US Federal Law to play an International Lottery.
You never have to pay to collect winnings from a legitimate lottery. You pay taxes AFTER you receive the winnings. There are no other fees.
If you hold a winning lottery ticket, you notify the lottery (they do not notify you; not by email, not by phone, and not by mail).
According to the Federal Trade Commission, Ignore all mail and phone solicitations for foreign lottery promotions. If you receive what looks like lottery material from a foreign country, give it to your local postmaster.

For more information regarding scams, please visit the Federal Trade Commission.