Ever receive “You Have Won” emails and wondered if they are a scam?
By liyan97
@liyan97 (2127)
Northern Mariana Islands
July 14, 2007 7:08am CST
Well today I got an email claiming that I have been chosen to receive a $5000.00 grant form a college in the United States and before I decided to send in my info, I decided that I should google it first! I found a site scamomatic.com that asked me to paste the email and they will be the ones to determine if it is legit.
I pasted the email and they told me that it is a scam that is being run in Africa. Sure enough the next email I received stated that I had to pay for express delivery to a Bank out of Africa…lol..
I just wanted to share this great site with you all, it certainly would eliminate the waste of time that we spend trying to figure out the real sites and the scams.
2 people like this
16 responses
@66jerseygirl (3877)
• United States
14 Jul 07
those emails are nothing but scams. I had that happen to me .got a check for 4,ooo almost 5,000 bucks.I had to cash it and send 3,000+ then they would send the rest of the 50,000.I asked the bank teller if it was a legitimate check and she said it appeared so but i didn't cash it,i decided to wait til it cleared then send the money cause it didn't feel right and good thing I did cause i found out it was a scam.If I had of cashed that check ,I would have owed the bank all that money
@liyan97 (2127)
• Northern Mariana Islands
15 Jul 07
Wow! It is hard to believe that there are people out there who care nothing more than themselves! They don’t realize that what they are doing by scamming us will cost us more than the money they are asking for! Thank you for sharing your experience.
2 people like this
@raychill (6525)
• United States
14 Jul 07
I've received emails such as that but never actually wondered if it was legit. I don't think email would be the proper way that anyone would tell you that you won something crazy like that, especially if it wasn't even something you entered. Most contests ask you for an address and or a phone number and that is more than likely how they would contact you, by phone.
It's always good to have a backup plan though and have a site that you can go to verify the validity of an email. The best advice for pop up adds and emails from people you don't recognize though is to always assume that they are in fact scams.
2 people like this
@oscarbartoni (2581)
• United States
14 Jul 07
I get a lot of fraud Email claiming to be from Pay Pal and EBay but when I send in the letters to Pay Pal or EBay through their fraud address they tell me that they are fraud and thank me for letting them know abut it. If they can catch these frauds it will only help them to keep a good reputation. On Pay Pal and EBay if they do not address you by name then it is a fraud and they never ask for pass words or anything like that. These frauds try to get your information so that they can get money from yo with out your permission. That is know as identity theft.
2 people like this
@alpine_007 (1469)
• Pakistan
14 Jul 07
yes, i have recieved alot of emails like that in my email account and once i also claimed the prize but i was lucky that i got to know that it was a scam at the right time, by going to the webpage of the company and emailing them about it, they replied and told me that this a scam lottery and don't send any money.
2 people like this
@babostwick (2036)
• United States
14 Jul 07
I usually just look at it and think to myself if it's a scam and then if I see I have to send money to someone, I consider it a scam. My question is why would I want to send money to someone just to get the prize.
2 people like this
@Ravenladyj (22904)
• United States
15 Jul 07
I've always known that those types of emails are a scam...if I didnt apply, join, request, enter a contest etc etc etc then its a ripoff, scam, and so on....thanks for that website name though, I'll have to check that out for sure, I'm curiosu to see what they have there...
1 person likes this
@saivenkaat802003 (4823)
• India
15 Jul 07
Thanks liyan for giving the site's name, but whenever i fet mails like this i simply report it as a spam, and only to find three more mails coming again.. It makes me sick of deleting all these mails again and again. Infact i received last week, a mail stating that i have won a lottery of Nintey thousand million pounds from a super jackpot conducted by a british lotto website.
The funnier part is i never played any lotto games online.. How can i get such a sum thro'lotto.. But still i had a day dream...about this winning of the lotto.lol:D)
1 person likes this
@petermason2000 (238)
• United States
15 Jul 07
I actually started to get these in the mail! They send out a counterfeit check. They ask you to deposit the check, then immediately withdraw most of it and send them the cash via money order. They promise then to send you even more money. Most banks worth a darn can identify the worthless check immediately. I have seen where other banks took up to three days to identify the counterfeit, and the person who deposited the worthless check is out several thousands of dollars.
ALL of these "too good to be true" scams are just that. Scams!
1 person likes this
@beauty_ph (2749)
• Philippines
15 Jul 07
If not millions I even have billions in my emails telling me to have these dollars or whatsoever. LOL. They are most of the time scam from Africa. I know some Africans are doing good things. But these email scams are really bad which brings the name of these beautiful country Africa. I just hope yahoo and other leading email sites can do something about the scams. God bless!
@Bobbz21 (155)
• New Zealand
15 Jul 07
Hey I got one of those today, from a resort it was for 4 people to go for a vacation to Florida for the amount of 3000.00. only thing is they asked for a credit card and you have to pay 890 for the whole four, it sounded pretty awesome, but you know its seems to good to be true.....
Thank you for sharing this information with mylot, I think we all have to watch out for scams......
@nana1944 (1365)
• United States
15 Jul 07
My inbox seems to be a magnet for the scam mails. What these people are doing is wanting to get bank info and stuff like that. They want you to send money for a courier service to deliver the winnings and the courier service information is a fake deal. A true prize is one that sends you the prize with no demand for a handling fee or anything like that. Another thing is that they will send you a counterfeit money order or some such thing and have you cash it and send them some portion of it to them using a legal money order and by the time it is discovered to be fake you are the one who has to pay back the money for the fake and you are the one who lost on it.
1 person likes this
@smartali89 (179)
• Pakistan
15 Jul 07
I also get these "You have won" emails,
Once I got this type of email, and decided to claim my won money, so read the whole mail and contact that person who sent me the email, I followed there instruction and sent them whole information of mine and they gave me the winning certificate. But at the last step they told me to pay a fee of 500 pounds as I am not a UK resident, I asked of any other method they told me that I should come to UK to take the money :P otherwise I will need to quit my Prize. So just left it.... The Prize was 1,000,000 Pounds ,,, :P
1 person likes this
