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O.t. - Truth Or Scam?


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A friend of mine came into work this morning with a letter he had received from London. It looks for all the world like a scam, the letter was hand addressed, and the friend has never participated in any activity that should have resulted in this sort of letter. He's a retired gentleman in his early 80's.

 

It purports to be from the following agency:

 

Prudent Alliance plc

Lottery, Management & Payment Verification

24 upper Richmond road

Sw15 2ot London England

Tel: 044-870-4460-051

Fax: 044-7005806797

 

I've tried to put in the exact usage of capitalization, number spacings, etc. It is stamped "By Air Mail par avion Royal Mail" among other things and appears to have an actual London postmark for what that's worth.

 

It claims that my friend is a winner of their promo lotto via Web plus Lotto programmes, and claims that he has won $52,940.00 USD.

 

The exact wording of the first paragraph is as follow and looks very clumsy and contrived:

 

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement dated,2nd of June 2005, of winners of the our promo lotto via Web plus Lotto programmes.

 

It then provides a contact name and extension number.

 

Our initial reaction is that they're trying to initiate a scam where the phone call results in a huge bill to his telephone account. Scams of this nature have been running for some time, and are hard to fight since the person actually DID make the phone call.

 

We'd really appreciate a feeling from your side of the big water as to the validity of this letter. My friend is skeptical, but reluctant to pass up this much money if by some chance there's some truth behind the thing.

 

I also know that there are forum members over there involved in government and law enforcement who may be interested in further information. Feel free to e-mail me from my profile if you'd like more data.

 

Thanks for any input you may have!

Edited by MiTuCats
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It's a scam.

 

We get similar, but of course ours are located in Spain, or Holland or something. You should always apply the rule, if it looks too good to be true then it usually is. These sort of scams work by chraging you money as an administration fee, to claim your prize in a lottery that you have never heard of and certainly didn't enter. Because this is across national borders, it is that much harder to catch the guys and the fall guys inevitably have little or no redress.

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Thanks for the info, especially the links. Those have helped a lot to convince him that there is no truth to the situation. He really didn't think there was, but deep down inside he was hoping. We can all understand that.

 

The suggestion of reporting it to the Postal Authorities on the Illinois scam link is a good one, I'll suggest that to him. The Illinois link involves exactly the same outfit, with a slight different twist.

 

I appreciate your quick and helplful input.

 

Only six more weeks until we arrive in London!!!!!!!! :lol:

Edited by MiTuCats
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Definite Advanced Fee Fraud scam.

 

Since your letter has a (invalidly postcoded) postal address, you could forward it to The Metropolitan Police

 

Basically, after you respond, it turns out that there's a "Claim Fee" or "Taxes" which you have to pay in advance. Other variations are that they can only pay into an account with a certain bank, so you have to open one (with a minimum initial investment of £10,000 via Western Union transfer) and the bank ceases to exist.

 

Looks like the "Lads from Lagos" aren't getting so much luck with emails, so they're switching back to posted letters like they used to use in the 1980s.

 

I was only suprised that the letter wasn't all written in capitals.

 

If you want a laugh, African Scam is a website where he answers scams to lead them on a wild goose chase.

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Definite Advanced Fee Fraud scam. 

 

Since your letter has a (invalidly postcoded) postal address, you could forward it to The Metropolitan Police

 

Basically, after you respond, it turns out that there's a "Claim Fee" or "Taxes" which you have to pay in advance.  Other variations are that they can only pay into an account with a certain bank, so you have to open one (with a minimum initial investment of £10,000 via Western Union transfer) and the bank ceases to exist.

 

Looks like the "Lads from Lagos" aren't getting so much luck with emails, so they're switching back to posted letters like they used to use in the 1980s.

 

I was only suprised that the letter wasn't all written in capitals.

 

If you want a laugh, African Scam is a website where he answers scams to lead them on a wild goose chase.

A better site is www.419eater.com. This site has a large membership who have even taken money from the scammers themselves. There are some absolutely hilarious pictures I.E.

 

sonoh_lawrence2.jpg

 

in the Trophy room. :lol::lol: Enjoy :lol:;)

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Yeah I get those too.

 

I figured somebody over there signed me up.

 

Nobby! :ph34r:

 

 

:rolleyes:

not guilty. on serious note i never respond to that sort of stuff i any way shape or form.

 

destroy all literature with your personal details on prior to binning. shred or burn the lot.

never respond to emails even to say unsubscribe as then they know they've hit a real address, they send them out as random addresses!

 

scam's only work against people who are greedy or gullible.

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These scams often target elderly people, who are expected to be more gullible. Quite why this should be so after 80 years on the planet isn't clear - I would go after naive 19 year olds myself.

 

BTW, what is your 80 year old retired friend doing "coming in to work" ? Shouldn't he be out caching ??

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If you want a laugh, African Scam is a website where he answers scams to lead them on a wild goose chase.

A better site is www.419eater.com. This site has a large membership who have even taken money from the scammers themselves. There are some absolutely hilarious pictures I.E.

 

sonoh_lawrence2.jpg

 

in the Trophy room. :anibad::anibad: Enjoy :(:)

Got to say that this site has given me the best laugh I have had for ages. Might try soething similar next time someone sends me an unsolicitated letter. The red breast one was hilarious. How could they not know they were being reversed scammed. Brilliant.

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just a little heads up.

 

there's an email going round claiming to be from paypal. it takes you to as site to verify your account details as "possible fraud had accourred" then asks for all credit card details and pin number and so on......DO NOT FALL FOR IT. it's a con.

If you get one, forward it to

spoof@delete mepaypal.com

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www.419eater.com. This site has a large membership who have even taken money from the scammers themselves. There are some absolutely hilarious pictures I.E.

 

sonoh_lawrence2.jpg

 

in the Trophy room.  :D  :)  Enjoy  :D  :P

I haven't laughed so much in ages, the bloke who got the scammer to complete a 64 page questionair with questions such as "Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near?" had me in stitches ;):):D:D:D:D:D:D:D

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