Gee, I'm rich! - or - new type of spam?

Factual Questions
1

According to the following email, I have won second place in a lottery (that I apparently didn’t need to enter.) The prize is supposedly $1.5 million. Of course, I was supposed to keep it confidential until I had the money in hand, so I may have blown it. Ooops.

Anyway, I’m curious what the gimmick is. I’m guessing it comes down to that bit about “In respect of our commitment towards helping the less
previledge[sic], we ask that you voluntarily contribute 1%
of
your Global winnings to any charity organization you
desire
at your convinience[sic].”

Somehow I’m guessing that translates to, before we send YOU any money, you need to send $15,000 to any of the charities on a short list of ‘approved’ ones we will send you. All of which no doubt have PO Box addresses at the same zip code.
Is this a new scam, or an old one being revived? I’d never heard of it before – it makes a nice change from the 3 to 6 daily mailings about those funds tied up in Nigeria…
=-=-=-=-=-=-
AV 5 CASTILLA MADRID SPAIN
FROM:CHEERFULGATE AWARD DEPT.
REF: SUN/2010-968091/03
BATCH: 54/010/IPD
DATE: 23/2/2005
RE: EMAIL WINNING CONFIRMATION NOTICE
We are glad to inform you that your E-mail address
appearsas the confirmed Winner of our last
CHEERFULGATE email lottery
program held on the 30th April 2004.Your e-mail
address attached to
ticket number
20675543256-786 with Serial number 3765-75 drew lucky
numbers
7-12-18-24-32-45, which Consequently won in the 2nd
category, you
have therefore been approved For a lump sum payment of
One Million
five hundred thousand united state
dollars(US$1.5,000.000).
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
This promotional program takes place every year. All
participants were selected through a computer ballot
system dra! wn
from over 100,000 companies and 50,000, 000 individual
email
addresses and names from all over the world.
In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications
please remember to quote your reference number and
batch numbers in
all correspondence.We ask that you keep your winning
information
confidential until your claims has been processed and
your money
remitted to you. Remember allwinnings must be claimed
not later than
7th of March
2005.
After this date all unclaimed funds will be included
in the next stake.
To file for your claim or for further details, please
contact our agent Mrs.Julie Anderson at
mrsjuliea12@yahoo.com.br
In respect of our commitment towards helping the less
previledge, we ask that you voluntarily contribute 1%
of
your Global winnings to any charity organization you
desire
at your convinience.
Co! ngratulations once more from our members of staff.
Mr. John Wood
Global Winning co-ordinator

Use o melhor sistema de busca da Internet
Radar UOL - http://www.radaruol.com.br

2

It’s a variation on the advance fee scam; if you actually went as far as trying to claim your ‘winnings’, you’d find that there would be some kind of tax or release/admin fee to pay first; you’d fork this out and never hear from the scammers again.

3

This sort of thing has been doing the rounds for quite a while. I’ve had lottery wins in Spain and the UK.

4

I’m guessing that the 1% to charity twist is just a wheeze tagged on the end to help you drop your guard. After all, nasty scammers wouldn’t ask you to do such a nice, caring thing, would they? So it must be legit! Woohoo!

Other than that, it’s just a plain and simple ‘advance fees’ scam, as Mangtout said. They won’t mention these fees until they’re sure you’ve taken the hook.

5

Poor sap - I won that same lottery and got 15,000,000 euro! Too bad you didn’t enter.

Yeah, it’s a scam. I didn’t even bother to try to find out what the scam was, so good on ya.

6

Ah, well. I guess trying to find a parking place for my stretch hummer would get tiresome.
On the brighter side, I have also been preapproved for an all expenses paid stay at a Florida condominium complex. All I have to do is bring hubby, and checkbook, and listen to a little sales pitch… :smiley: