Email, purporting to be an official prize notification document from Coca-Cola, claims that the recipient has won 950,000.00 GPB in the "Coca-Cola Company 2010 online Promo".
The message is not from Coca-Cola and there is no prize. The promised prize money is just the bait used by Internet criminals to trick recipients into sending them money and sensitive personal information. This message is a typical advance fee lottery scam.
Note: This scam email comes in the form of an attached PDF document complete with Coca-Cola graphics and logos. The following is a transcript of this PDF.
Subject: KINDLY OPEN THE ATTACHED COPY AND CONFIRM YOUR WINNINGS{CONGRALATIONS}.
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU WON GBP 950, 000.00!
THE COCACOLA COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
The Europe/America private international e-games are pleased to inform you of
the result of the final concluded draws which was conducted at our international
corporate office complex here in LONDON-UK, by Coca-Cola in conjunction with
Ipod Worldwide Promotion.
Your email was among the 20 Lucky winners who won GPB950, 000.00 {Nine
Hundred And Fifty Thousand Great Britain Pounds} each in the Coca-Cola
Company 2010 online Promo.
This draw is being organized to enhance awareness and publicity of the Coca-
Cola Zero product. The foundation also seeks to courage the use of Internet for
academic and business pursuits. It major aim is to promote music, theater, art,
literature, projects in the social and political arena with a focus on health, as
well as science, research and higher education
However the results were released on the {Sat of 22 May 2010} With winning
numbers 01 14 19 22 52 58 and Bonus number 16 and your email attached to ticket
number (7PWYZ2010) and ballot number (BT: 12052010/20) The online draws
was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list
of 29,031,643 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an
advanced automated random computer search from the internet.
However, no tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different
ticket numbers for representation and privacy.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in our
computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ)
This Lottery is approved by the British Game Board and also licensed by the
International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR).This lottery is the 3rd of
its kind and we intend to sensitize the public.
Further more your details(e-mail address) falls within our African representative
office in South Africa, as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of
GBP950,000.00 will be released to you from our regional branch office in South
Africa.
We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year high
stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw.
Congratulations!!!!!
To begin your claims, kindly contact our South African fiduciary agent \
accredited attorney at below contact info:
cchriswwaters@yahoo.com.hk
HIS NAME IS: Chris Waters
DIRECT PHONE LINE: +27-794 002 069
ADDRESS: SUITH 005,501 FESTIVE STREETS, HATFEILD, PRETORIA\CITY SOUTH AFRICA.
ENOS & ENOS LAW CHAMBER,
1ST FLOOR, BLOCK E CROWNWOOD OFFICE PARK
100 NORTHERN PARKWAY ORMONDE.
We advice you to contact them immediately via email as well as giving them a call and
provide them with the following information’s as stated below, so they can proceed with
the verification and clearance process of your file. Note that your file has been forwarded
to them from our head office for immediate release of your winning prize to you.
1. Full Names: ...............................................................................
2. Residential Address: ..............................................................
3. Phone Number: Mobile & Home: ..........................................
4. Fax Number: ....................................................
5. Occupation: ............................................
6. Sex: ...............................................
7. Age: .....................................
8. Nationality: .....................
9. Ballot No. :.......................
10. Ticket No. :......................
*You are advised to forward these information’s as soon as possible to enable
them attend to your file.
This email is registered and sent only to a certified coca-cola online promo
winner.
Due to possible mix up of some numbers and email contacts, we ask that you
keep this award strictly from public notice until your claim has been processed
and your money remitted. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double
claiming or unscrupulous acts by some participants of this program.
*Staff of Coca-Cola, ACCULOTTO.COM Group International and Ipod Worldwide
Promotions are not to partake in this programmed.
Accept our hearty congratulations once again!
Yours Faithfully,
Mr. Kuash Behler and Dr. Jack Colman
Our First Quarter Winner of
GBP950, 000.00 from Amsterdam, Holland
18th March, 2009.
Our Second Quarter Winner Mrs. Ali Fatima from Nepal receiving her winning cheque of GBP 950,
000.00 also on the picture is her husband and friends rejoicing with them. December 21st 2009
N\B. YOU MUST BE 16 OR OVER TO PLAY OR CLAIM YOUR PRIZE.
______________
The information in this e-mail, including any files transmitted with it, is
confidential and may also be legally privileged. It is intended for the
addressee only. Access to this e-mail by anyone else is unauthorized.
Unauthorized recipients are required to maintain confidentiality and must
not disclose copy, distribute, or retain this e-mail or any part of it. If you
have received this e-mail in error please notify us immediately, destroy
any copies and delete it from your computer system.
========================================= === = = =
Copyright 2000-2010 Coca-Cola Zero product. .All rights reserved. Terms of
Service - Guideline 77635 476378 255667460 FROM THE COCACOLA COMPANY:
Screenshot of PDF "Winning Notification" Document
This "prize notification" message, which purports to be from high profile beverage company, Coca-Cola, claims that the "lucky" recipient has won a sizable cash prize of nine hundred and fifty thousand Great Britain Pounds in the "Coca-Cola Company 2010 online Promo". The "winner" is instructed to contact the "South African fiduciary agent" to arrange verification of the claim and the release of the prize money. Ostensibly as part of the verification process, the "winner" is asked to provide a considerable amount of personal information. The message comes in the form of a PDF document attached to an email. The PDF includes seemingly official Coca-Cola graphics, logos and copyright notices along with photographs supposedly showing past winners of the prize.
However, the message is not from Coca-Cola and there is no such promotion as the "Coca-Cola Company 2010 online Promo". And, accordingly, there is of course no cash prize either. The entirely fictional prize is nothing more than an enticing piece of bait dangled in front of would be victims by canny cyber criminals. The bait is intended to entice victims into moving into the trap set by the scammers by following the instructions outlined in the scam message.
Those who do contact the bogus fiduciary agent as instructed will soon be asked to pay a fee of some description that is supposedly required to procure the release of the prize money. And if they fall even deeper into the scammer's trap and actually pay this fee, requests for more upfront fees are likely to follow. The scammers will pretend that these fees are needed to cover such expenses as tax and insurance costs, bank charges, and delivery fees related to the processing and transfer of the "prize money". The scammers will claim that under no circumstances will the prize be payed until all of the requested fees have been paid. They will also claim that it is impossible or illegal to deduct the fees from the prize money itself. Of course, all money sent by the victim will go into the coffers of the criminals operating the scam. Victims are very unlikely to ever have any of their money returned. Tricking recipients into sending their money is the primary aim of the scam.
However, those who fall for the ruse also risk having their identity stolen. When they first contact their "agent", recipients are asked to provide a sizable amount of basic personal information, supposedly to verify their right to claim. Using this procured information as a base, scammers may then collect even more sensitive personal and financial information from their victims as the scam progresses. By the time the victims finally realize that they are being scammed, the criminals may well have harvested enough personal data to steal their identity.
Advance fee scammers often attempt to make their bogus claims seem more legitimate by using the names, graphics and logos of real companies such as Coca-Cola in their scam messages. They also add extra "features" in sometimes quite lame attempts to add credibility to their scam messages. In this case, they have included several rather grainy photographs that supposedly show previous winners of the "Coca-Cola Company 2010 Promo". However, at least two of these "past winner" pictures have been used in other scam messages, including another advance fee lottery scam that billed itself as the
. And one of the "past winners" photographs clearly displays a "Michigan Lottery" logo in the background. Searching on Google Images quickly reveals that the photograph actually shows a young woman who won a prize in the
and has no connection whatsoever to this bogus "Coca-Cola Promo".
To explain away the improbable circumstances by which a "lucky" winner could somehow win a very substantial prize in a lottery that he or she never bought a ticket for or even submitted an entry form for, the scammers generally make the utterly false claim that the winner has been chosen via the random selection of their name or email address from a list collected online. In the hope of getting their bogus messages to at least a few people who will fall for their nefarious tactics, lottery scammers generally send out many thousands of identical scam messages.
Advance fee prize scams such as this one are an extremely common form of criminal activity. Versions of the advance fee scam have been around for many years and even predate email and the Internet. In spite of widespread publicity about such scams, however, criminals who use these tactics still manage to steal millions of dollars every year from unsuspecting victims all around the world. Any unsolicited email, fax, letter or text message that claims that you have won a large prize in some manner of online promotion that you have never even entered is quite likely to be a scam. If you receive such a message, do not reply to the scammers. Certainly, do not send them any money or personal information.
