Advance Fee Fraud: Summerset International Lottery

Well, the 419ers have well and truly discovered my "mailto" link -- I've won another El Fraudo Lottery. The spam was received from 81.33.133.53 (53.Red-81-33-133.pooles.rima-tde.net -- that's in Spain again, or should I say "in Spain still?") on Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:23:17 -0000. The content was base64 encoded, which is a fairly common trick used to avoid particularly naive spam filters. I mention it only because I haven't seen much of this technique lately. Presumably that's because all the spam filters that were impacted by the trick have long since been adjusted to compensate for it. Gmail flagged it as spam, but it's pretty good at that sort of thing.

This may be a variation on the usual advance fee fraud, which we might call "refund fraud". Note, in the copy below, the claim that "this 10% will be remitted after you have received your winnings prize". Granted, there is also some mention of what looks like advance fees, or at least the possibility of them demanding a lot of personal data to "confirm your identity" (or some other such pretext), but mention of a fee after you receive your winnings is a slightly different tack. What happens here is that they send you a rubber cheque (that's a "check" for the Americans in the audience). You deposit the cheque, send them the ten percent remittance, and then find later that your bank reverses the deposit of the cheque, leaving you with a really big problem.

Don't get involved in scams like this. Nothing good can come of it. If you're already involved, then don't draw on any money you deposit. Just leave it there. The chances are it doesn't exist, and your bank will figure that out and make it disappear. And if you gave any identifying information to the 419ers, watch out for identity fraud. Don't give them enough personal information that they could apply for a credit card using your identity, for goodness sake. Even if they don't do it themselves, they could sell the data to someone else.

FROM:GOVERNMENT ACCREDITED LICENSED LOTTERY PROMOTERS.
WINNING NOTICE FOR CATEGORY "B" WINNERS.
Ref..# SLPA / 628000234/ 05
Batch..# 05-968544400-LPA
RE:BONUS LOTTERY PROMOTION PRIZE AWARDS WINNING NOTIFICATION
Dear Lucky Winner,
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded final draws of SUMMERSET INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY AWARD held on the 27th Apr,2005. The online cyber lotto draws was conducted from an exclusive list of 25,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet in appreciation of our annual  summer visitors to Spain. No tickets were sold.
After this automated computer ballot, your e-mail address emerged as one of two winners in the category "B" with the following:
You as well as the other winner are therefore to receive a cash prize of €2,800,809:00 ( Two Million, Eight Hundred Thousand, Eight Hundred And Nine Euros Only) each from the total payout prize.
Your prize awards has been insured with your e-mail address pending when your full names and address will be known to us, and  thereafter,your winning fund will be transfered to you upon meeting our requirements, statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report. To begin the claims processing of your prize winnings you are advised to contact our licensed and accredited claims agent Sr. Pedro  Gonzalez
Tel # +34-675-165-960
Fax #+34-657-197-922
Email: mega-trust-ag@myway.com
And also be informed that 10% of your lottery winning belongs to (IBERO PROMOTION COMPANY S,A.) Because they are the company that bought your ticket and played the lottery on your name, NOTE this 10% will be remitted after you have received your winnings prize because the money is insured in your name already.  for category "B" winners with the informations below:
Ticket #. 005-620006500238-SSLPA.
Serial #. 779065780999
Winning #. 05-56-622-100-077
File #   LPA / 609874
NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later than the 20th May,2005. After this date, all unclaimed funds will be included in the next stake. Remember to quote your reference information in all correspondences. You are to keep all lottery informations away from the general public especially your reference and ticket numbers. This is important as a case of double claims will not be entertained.
Anybody under the age of 18 and members of the affiliate agencies are automatically not allowed to participate in this program.

Congratulations!!!
Yours faithfully,
PABLO  ANTONIO  MARIANO.