Lottery Winner Donation Scam
Lottery Winner Donation Scam: How It Works
The scam is trending now in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, but regardless of what country or state you’ve been living in, here is an ingenious approach that scammers take when it comes to lottery winners. The last two names of scammers – or rather the ones they use – are Dave Johnson, Michael J Wiersky, as well and Frances & Patrick Connolly. In this article, we will show you how the scam works and how to find out if a profile is fake.
Take the case of Kelsey Zachow, a real, lucky girl who won 66 million dollars.
However, criminals created fake Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter accounts using her credentials. How did they have them? It was an easy thing to find because lottery winners are featured in the news with their success stories (you know those pictures with 6/49 millionaires holding checks, right?).
Using Kelsey’s full name, the crooks posted a generous promise of donating $1,000 from her winnings to the first 75,000 Instagram followers – see the image above.
Alternatively, the scammers send emails offering the donation (amount varies). In order to do that, they ask the victims for their bank account, in order to transfer the promised money. In exchange, they are required to pay ‘a small tax’ that apparently is needed for international donations.
Needless to say, the ‘lucky’ followers were rather unfortunate for giving their personal information away. However, be aware that scammers may use other names too, such as philanthropists or business people.
Watch the video below to see a different variation of the Lottery Winner Scam exposed:
Potential victims are taking this to social media, exposing the scammers. Here is the last Tweet from user @maelen:
Do not fall for this guys scam. He’s claiming to be a lottery winner and is trying to get very personal information from people. Please keep yourselves safe out there. #scam #fake pic.twitter.com/aHa60Nx0xy
— Maelen (@_maelen_) April 20, 2020
Lottery Winner Donation Scam: How to Avoid
Keep in mind that new scammers could copy this scheme and use lottery winners’ names from your region. Be very careful. As a fact, lottery winners are advised on the day of the claiming to close their social media accounts temporarily. Not to mention that – within days – they are approached for donations by hundreds of people and various local organizations.
Meanwhile, be careful about all kinds of scams that promise big outcomes such as the Gold IRA Investment Scam, Cancelled Flight Compensation, and any kind of loan approvals.
How To Find Out If a Profile Is Fake
Here is some good news. Watch the video below to see how you can easily identify if the profile contacting you on social is fake (you can apply to all, not just Facebook).
Always do your research and trust only legitimate sources. If you really are into looking for ways to earn money or rewards online or from social media, you can join Swagbucks.com, which is the world’s largest free online rewards program. You get paid by doing things online which you might do anyway, such as searching the web, discover products, take surveys, watch videos or play games.
You can also get free iTunes and Amazon cards. The company has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. You can register for free HERE.
just received a scam from a Webster ransbury at w.ransbury@gmail.com They said I won the lottery and have to send in a fee to collect
In the last couple of days I recieved some Emails telling me that I was the winner in Facebook/zynga lottery from a Maria Davies from (facebook2014lotosupport@outlook.com) They have send a copy of a check and a winner certificate, but I got suspicius when I could pay 450 English pound.But I gave them my personal information wich I regrets today.
is this real or fake Jul 4 (6 days ago) We have deposited the check of your fund ($1.700scamdetect_00000USD) through Western U… Darvis Johnson Jul 9 (1 day ago) to revtonyfrancis What is the mtcn sender name and how I go about receiving the fund that your are saying that is there for me. How do I know that this is real amd not fake revtony francis Jul 9 (1 day ago) We write to acknowledge the receipt of your mail regarding your funds transfe… revtony francis Jul 9 (1 day ago) DR. DAVID MARK Tel +229-99286146/ +22967577961 > >… Read more »
I receive this email from this scammer Harold Diamond. Beware!!! Here is the content: Re: My Donation To You!!! Mr Harold Diamond (mrharoldd88@foxmail.com) mrharoldd88@foxmail.com God Bless You And Your Family My entire family is pleased to read your reply to us. I am Mr. Harold Diamond I am a 80 years old , and i am from Wurtsboro, New York, but now Moved to United Kingdom in January after i won the Mega Millions jackpot of $326,000,000.00 million in November 4, 2014, My jackpot was a gift from God to me and my entire family, I have agreed to do… Read more »
Hi ~ I received a text from "Zhang, Runzhou" runzhou_zhang@hks17.harvard.edu today, Sept. 16, 2015 at 2:32 AM; Subject: Good News. Message: "2M Dollars donated to you. Contact via email to: grantproject1@onet.eu for more details. This LOOKS like a scam to me. I have not contacted them. Do you have any details?
Grantproject1@onet.eu is a scam and email adress yang-yangmed.lu.se
I am Rohit
I am from Kolkata. My Mobile number is "+91-9163666333"
Today I got a SMS from +91-8468847192. The sender email is bion.mar@yandex.com
It is said in the SMS that the person is dying of cancer. And he/she have 4.5 million dollar for donation for helping poor people.
I know its a fraudulent sms as we have already seen in the news.
I am posting here just to inform you & the government, so that necessary steps can be taken against this sms sender.
I recently got an email from Thomas Morris saying they want to help people and that good things can happen…. They are telling me they want to donate a large sum of money to me and I’m curious if it’s a scam or not??
True or Fake
Charity scam