An email with a $1 million gift
Today has been a day so special that I will remember it to my
dying day. I have never known
such joy and happiness. Today I received a special email, totally unsolicited and right out of
the blue. Here it is:
such joy and happiness. Today I received a special email, totally unsolicited and right out of
the blue. Here it is:
Dear Sir/Madam
This is my seventh time of writing you this email. My wife and I won a Jackpot
Lottery of $11.2 million in July and have voluntarily decided to donate the sum
of $1,000,000.00 USD to you as part of our own charity project to improve the
lot of 5 lucky individuals all over the world.
If you have received this email then you are one of the lucky recipients and
all you have to do is get back with us so that we can send your details to the
payout bank.
You can verify this by visiting the web pages below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11699678
Goodluck.
The Larges.
This is my seventh time of writing you this email. My wife and I won a Jackpot
Lottery of $11.2 million in July and have voluntarily decided to donate the sum
of $1,000,000.00 USD to you as part of our own charity project to improve the
lot of 5 lucky individuals all over the world.
If you have received this email then you are one of the lucky recipients and
all you have to do is get back with us so that we can send your details to the
payout bank.
You can verify this by visiting the web pages below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11699678
Goodluck.
The Larges.
So I quickly clicked on the link and sure enough it took me
to the US-Canada page of BBC
New and right there in front of my eyes was a photo of a lovely Canadian couple holding a
check for $11.2 million dollars.
New and right there in front of my eyes was a photo of a lovely Canadian couple holding a
check for $11.2 million dollars.
I’ve reproduced the BBC item below:
Canadian couple give away
millions in lottery winnings
A Canadian couple who
won $10.9m (£6.7m) in lottery winnings in July say they have given away $10.2m
of the prize to groups in their community.
 |
| Allen and Violet Large with their winnings |
Allen and Violet Large
said they were plain country folks who needed no more than "what we've
got".
The two said they had
donated about 98% of the cash after helping their family.
The elderly pair gave
the money to churches, fire departments, cemeteries, the Red Cross and
hospitals, where Ms Large has undergone cancer treatment.
"We haven't
bought one thing. That's because there is nothing that we need," Mr Large,
75, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Mr Large, a retired
welder from Canada's Nova Scotia province, added that he and his wife were
quite content with their 147-year-old home and everything else they already
owned.
"You can't buy
happiness," he said.
It was almost too good
to be true. The lovely Canadian couple really did want to give me $1 million
dollars.
From the US-Canadian
page button I clicked on the home page button and it flicked across. It really
was BBC News. Then I clicked on the US-Canada button again and it flicked back
to US-Canada news, but it was an entirely different page of news. The lovely
old Canadians had vanished.
So I Googled Allen and
Violet Large and, large as life, I found they were almost everywhere. They were
famous. They really had won a lot of money and given most of it away, but that
was more than two years ago and the money was long gone.
Meanwhile, some
fraudsters have been sending out emails, claiming to be the Larges, and
tricking people into giving personal information including bank account
details.
Below is one of the
many items turned up by Google:
Scammers
Phish for Victims While Impersonating Elderly Couple Who Won Lottery
7th August 2012
A few years ago, elderly couple Allen
& Violet Large won the lottery and collected a cool $11.2 million
dollars.Instead of keeping their winnings all to themselves, they donated it to family members, charity groups and nearby businesses in their area.
While most of us simply appreciate idea that these folks chose to make such a generous decision to share their wealth with those around them, cybercriminals have decided to use the story as a gateway to yet another scam.
The scam starts off with an email similar to the one I received below:
From: Programa Jornal da Cultura (jornaldacultura@tvcultura.com.br)
Subject: Dear Lucky Winner….
I and my wife violet voluntarily decided to donate the sum of $500,000.00 USD to you as part of charity project to improve the lot of 10 lucky individuals worldwide. You can also verify the link below
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326473/Canadian-couple-Allen-Violet-Large-away-entire-11-2m-lottery-win.html
Send Your
Name..
Telephone..
Age..
Country..
To our private email: allen.violet-large01@live.com and please do not reply to this jornaldacultura@tvcultura.com.br
Good luck,
Allen and Violet Large
As you can see, the scammers decided to throw in a link to the legitimate article to help build credibility (assuming you don’t read the date).
Of course, this email was not sent by Allen or Violet Large, but a scammer that’s looking to make a quick buck through an advanced fee scheme, collect confidential information to commit identity fraud, or maybe both.
Bottom line is, don’t reply to this email (or any others like it) and definitely do NOT provide your personal or financial information.
Now isn’t that a shame? I was so looking forward to a
donation of $1 million dollars.
I was feeling sad and excluded but hooray! Received my offer of a million today. They seem to change their email address regularly - I suppose to stop the begging letters? - as this one came from an address at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
ReplyDeleteSuch a shame though, to use the names of these very kind and generous people.
And hello to beautiful Hamilton from beautiful Friuli Venezia Giulia.