FRAUD ALERT: New Prize Scam from Blackberry Promotions/British National Lottery

FRAUD ALERT: New prize scam from “Blackberry Promotions/British National Lottery”

A prize scam has been circulating this week for “Blackberry Internet Promotional Draws”, purportedly from the British National Lottery (BNL). Members have received a congratulatory email and from BNL “Promotion Co-coordinator, Gaylor Britt C”. The ‘winner’ is asked of course to provide the claims office with their personal information. An interesting element undoubtedly featured in an attempt to add some legitimacy to the prize claim warns “winners” that “any breach of confidentiality on the part of the Winners will result to disqualification, You are to immediately contact your claims officer with this email ([email protected])”. Read an excerpt from the email below:

BNL Email.Notification.

Dear winner.

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the blackberry Internet Promotional Draws. All email addresses entered for this promotional draws were randomly inputted from an internet resource database using the Synchronized Random Selection System (SRSS). Your email address was selected in the Category A with Special Digit Code: BNL988777/UK and Special Ticket Digit Code: LNB447969/2011-12, and this qualifies you to be the recipient of the grand prize award sum of Two million, five hundred thousand united States dollars. The payout of this cash prize to you will be subject to the final validations and satisfactory report that you are the authentic owner of the winning email address. In line with the governing rules of claim, you are required to establish contact with your designated claims agent via email or telephone with the particulars below:

Enquiry officer: Mr Victor Dunlop Phone: +447 424 642 438 Email: [email protected]

You are advice to immediately establish contact with the Enquiry Officer via the e-mail address above with the information's necessary: Name: Address: Phone: Cell Phone: Email: Alternative Email: Occupation: and Special Digit Code: Failure to complete the claims of your cash prize after 14 days of this notice will result in the revision of award. Hence, you should commence your claims process immediately, by contacting the claims agent (Mr Victor Dunlop) who would be guiding you through the Claims process.

Remember, legitimate prize draws, lotteries or sweepstakes do not:  Notify winners by email  Award prizes without first purchasing a lottery ticket  Award prizes to randomly selected email addresses  Use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to contact you  Tell you to keep your winnings secret  Ask winners to pay a fee in order to collect their prize

To report or seek advice on dealing with fraud and scam attempts, contact Cynthia Nield at [email protected], or 902 423 1300, x346.