e-Mail users should be on the lookout for yet another lottery scam promising sizeable cash rewards. Tagged “Good news from South Africa 2010”, the e-mail urges the recipient to open a jpeg attachment, which at first glance appears quite convincing.
Not so, according to Symantec’s Dan Bleaken, who says the first give-away is that the jpeg missive, purporting to be from the Football 2010 World Cup Lottery Award Program”, lists a PO Box address in Liverpool, UK.
“Amusingly the postcode is ‘L70 1 NIL’, which would never pass as a valid UK address. The scammers ask for the usual personal details and the bottom of the jpeg file is littered with cut and pasted images from well-known brands related to the World Cup in a familiar attempt to add legitimacy. (See screenshot below).
“The background watermark is what seems to be a very popular device of World Cup scammers - the image of Nelson Mandela holding on to the World Cup with a big smile on his face,” Bleaken adds.
Not a bad try, but remember legitimate organisations are not in the habit of sending important communications as jpeg attachments and, as always, if you haven’t entered a lottery, it’s highly unlikely that you’ve won it!