We well understand that the single greatest hurdle we face with our project — which after all offers delectable prizes, advantageous odds and reasonably priced vouchers — is credibility. How can you be expected to distinguish an honest proposition from the myriad fraudulent ones out there?
It used to be called the Honest Indian Dilemma:
There are two tribes of Indians (this is an American story so it has to be assumed that we’re talking about American Red Indians – and yes, I know that it’s hardly PC to even mention them anymore). At any rate, one tribe consists of white-footed honest Indians who always tell the truth and the other tribe consists of black-footed dishonest Indians who invariably lie. You are going along a road and you meet an Indian – wearing moccasins so that you can’t see his feet. “Are you an honest Indian?” you ask (yes, yes, it’s a dumb question, but this is a moral tale, after all). The Indian, who happens to be an honest, white-footed Indian, answers “Yes,” which is of course the truth. Your problem is that although he’s telling the truth you immediately suspect he’s a dishonest, black-footed Indian who is lying. And you really won’t be able to tell without looking at his feet.
So that’s what we want to do: show you our feet.
This list of websites may be useful in identifying the evildoers.
Left clicking on these links will take you away from this site, so we suggest that you right click to open them in a separate page.
Websites on lottery scams:
http://www.fraudaid.com/ScamSpam/Lottery/
Useful site with a broad overview of online and direct mail scams. Good FAQ and there is also a free newsletter and eZine. We can't recommend this site enough, but do be aware that Annie McGuire, who runs it, is inevitably swamped just keeping up with all the new scams that turn up constantly and so she can't easily respond to individual enquiries That said, we should note that she was wonderfully helpful to us regarding ways to avoid even seeming to be fraudulent.
http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/
This is an Australian security company and their services, which have to be contracted, may be more appropriate for companies than individuals. Still, it’s worth going to their pages just to take a look at the Phishing Alerts page, which is up to date on the spam emails that are going out under the names of PayPal, eBay, and various banks, asking you to confirm account details that are then used for identity theft. You can subscribe to their free phishing alert email newsletter. They also have some software in development to identify fraudulent offers.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/intlalrt.htm
This is a US government site, and we think it’s a bit simplistic. For example, it quotes a typical come-on: “Congratulations! You may receive a certified check for up to $400,000,000 U.S. CASH! One Lump sum! Tax free! Your odds to WIN are 1-6.” “Hundreds of U.S. citizens win every week using our secret system! You can win as much as you want!” Call me a heartless old cynic, but I figure anybody who is so stupid as to believe they could win $400 million on 1 in 6 odds should have his/her head examined (which would no doubt show it to be empty).
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/~wm/wm-lotto.html
Informative site, with an extensive list of malefactors, though it’s likely only a scratch on the surface. Still, it shows examples of some of the quite sophisticated letters and forms they use. Judy’s mother was caught by some of them last year. She’s in her eighties and not at all up-to-date about such things. Shows how these bastards prey on the elderly, the credible, and people so honest that it would never occur to them that other people can be appallingly greedy, exploitative and completely without scruple.
http://www.ncis.co.uk/press/fakencsemails.asp
A National Crime Squad site. Not a lot of help, frankly, as the scope is limited to a spoof of their own email system. Contains a link to another site which also isn’t of much use. These two sites are a bit of a waste of time, truth told.
Some others you may wish to look at, which repeat much of the information in the sites above, are:
http://www.stopecg.org/lottery.htm
http://www.lottery.co.uk/html/scamtop.htm
Has some examples of scam notification of win letters.
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/helpcentral/bulletins/
european_lottery_scams.php
http://www.lots0cash.com/directory/Lottery_Scams
General site, with lists of the URLs noted above.
