So i got this email just now for an international sweepstakes, it seems pretty legit and doesn't ask for any personal info such as a credit card number or bank account number, the PDF that came with the email said there was a mix up and i'm getting 2.5 millions euro's out of 20, they left an email address that ends with "gov.uk" which i'm assuming is the government email address, thing is, i didn't sign up for any sweepstakes, normally i'd dsay this is BS, but by it not asking for any personal info partaining to bank info, seems pretty legit. what do you guys think?

If I were you I wouldn't open it, and less like in this case if you haven't sign up to the subject it is about. it's not the first time I recieve email with an "official" signature from another country. All of them Spam.

Anyway, let's wait and see what other people think about it.

Edited November 9, 201213 yr by strike

I think it is legit, i just think the sender sent it to me by mistake.

Why would a UK Email offer you Euro's?

It'd be GBP.

I don't trust this.

This sounds familiar but I don't remember why... Anyways, did you try running a Google search on the email address they left you? Perhaps someone else asked the same question somewhere else (if it's spam), or maybe it will link back to an official UK site.

Edited November 9, 201213 yr by Iconography

Have had two emails like that until now. If they were to be legit, I would've been a zillionaire right about now.

The email did say that it's an international sweepstakes, but the email was from what i would say would ne a governemnt email address >> ".gov.uk" canada has the same thing when you get an email from somewhere in the government.

Id say its spam/virus, but hey why not take a chance? borrow a friends computer for a sec :whistling:

Yeahh, if I were you I wouldn't trust that.

It isn't hard to spoof an email address. Anyone could have sent that email. What exactly is it asking you to do? I get them all the time, and I play along with them sometimes.... They will end up asking you for your personal info, but will convince you that they are legitimate first.

Someone from the FBI contacted me the other day to tell me I hadn't collected my $5,000,000...!!!

But of course there was a $500 fee which had to be paid straight away.

LOL

IT'S FAKE !!!!!!!! :devil:

Edited November 9, 201213 yr by mbk2008

LOL i was reading this topic and the advert at the top says : You have 1 new message.....hmmm I think it may be fake :)

If it sounds too good to be true, chances are it is. I've seen this way too many times on naive young and old people when I do client calls for badly infected machines, it's always "Yeah well they promised me a chunk of it so I gave them my info to invest and now my bank account is cleaned out". That or usually the email has infectious attributes like links that redirect to exploit kits (It can look like a .gov link, but it's truthfully probably a Russian url with exploit kit). or even simply having the malware in the Email. I wouldn't even trust this for a single bit, close it and move on I'd say, it's probably a scam (And I say probably because you never know if something is legit or not...).

That is my personal and professional advice.

Edited November 9, 201213 yr by JAM-Justin35

Well majority wins by saying it's most likely not legit, so i'll go by that, i've never been a victim of a scam before, thank's everyone for you're input!

Yeah most likely not legit.

I was going to post the link from the FBI, but your Canadian so I thought why not the RCMP. My rule of thumb is if unless a lawyer or people with a big check and prize van role up at my door, its 99.99% a fraud.

http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams-fraudes/index-eng.htm

419 scam. They won't ask for your information right away. They lull you in by getting all friendly-like and personal then bleed you. Forward the email to a scam baiting site like 419Eater(dot)com - if those guys are even around anymore - and if it's a big enough operation they'll take care of the rest. They also give good tips on how to mess with these people if you prefer your harassment first-hand. I promise many larfs if that's the route you choose. But be cautious about it by replying to them on a different email account and use Skype for calls rather than your actual phone.

Also, run a thorough virus scan on your computer if you haven't already and avoid opening attachments from senders you do not know.

Edited November 9, 201213 yr by aggressor27

I can literally send email as any address on the entire internet, by putting that address in a "from" header. While there are systems to try and make sure an email actually came from the domain it claims to be from(so an email I spoof would *probably* be immediately detected as spam), I'd be absolutely shocked if EVERY UK government website had that set up (just because of the sheer number of government systems).

Edited November 9, 201213 yr by cp702

You may already be infected if you opened a .PDF file that was attached. Not only is opening an attachment via e-mail from an unknown sender a bad idea, but it's a .PDF. One of the least secure file types known to man. Adobe security is nearly nonexistent And vulnerabilities take an average of 3-4 months to get fixed, as the only release security updates quarterly, to match up with business's desires over general consumer needs.

Heh, yeah, I got this email too. It is a complete scam, there is no one in the world who would just send an email to some random person they don't even know and give 'em, say, two million euros.

And that goes more so for any government in the world. Period.