Outline:
Message purporting to be from the Case Foundation claims that your profile was selected as a winner of £75,000 via a computer ballot system and you should therefore contact the Awards Claims Agent to begin processing of your prize. The message comes via email or via LinkedIn.
Brief Analysis:
The Case Foundation is a real organisation, but it did not send this message. The message is a scam designed to trick you into sending your money and personal information to cybercriminals.
Hi [Name Removed],
You were contacted because your profile was selected in The Case Foundation Awards through our computer ballot system making you a winner of 75,000 GBP (Seventy Five Thousand Great British Pounds).This is in keeping with the dreams and visions of digital pioneers Jean and Steve Case. We create programs and invest in people and organizations that harness the best impulses of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and collaboration to drive exponential impact. Our partners are change makers with ideas that have trans-formative potential and can lead us to uncover new, more impact ways of addressing chronic social challenges.Our efforts to drive social change are focused on three key pillars: revolutionizing philanthropy, unleashing entrepreneurs and igniting civic engagement. To claim we shall need some details to help us with the processing of your funds. Please provide us with the following details below:
1. Full names
2. Identification Card of copy or international passport
3. Profession/Occupation
4. Tell/Cellphone
Note that the paying bank for this award is in the United Kingdom and the mode of payment shall be through either of these modes i.e
1.Bank to bank (Online banking)
2.Through a certified bank Check to the tune of your award as such you must also indicate/confirm the mode of your preferred payment.
We await your prompt response,
Regards,
[Name Removed]
(Award Claims Agent)
Detailed Analysis:
According to this message, which claims to be from the Case Foundation, you have won £75,000 via the Case Foundation Awards. The message claims that your profile was selected via a computer ballot system and instructs you to send your personal information to a specified ‘Award Claims Agent’ to being the processing of your prize.
The Case Foundation is a real organisation that ‘invests in individuals, nonprofits, and social enterprises aiming to connect people, increase giving, and catalyze civic action’. However, the Case Foundation did not send this message and you have not won any money. In fact, it is a scam message designed to trick you into sending money and sensitive personal information to criminals. The message is distributed via email and LinkedIn.
If you contact the agent as instructed, you will soon begin receiving requests for money, ostensibly to cover various expenses supposedly related to the processing of your ‘prize’. The scammers will claim that you must pay all of the requested fees in advance or you will forfeit your right to the prize money. Requests for more and more such fees will likely continue until you run out of money or realise that you are being scammed.
And, as the scam progresses, the criminals may manage to collect a large amount of your personal and financial information, ostensibly in order to verify your identity and help process your ‘win’. The information they collect may later be used to steal your identity.
The Case Foundation has confirmed that the message is a scam via comments on its Facebook Page:
There is someone attempting to impersonate the Foundation on LinkedIn, but we must reiterate that we are not currently promoting any contest or awarding prizes from the Case Foundation. We are actively working with LinkedIn to resolve the issue. This has been reported to them multiple times and we have assurances that it is being escalated internally by LinkedIn. In the meantime, please know that this is not the Case Foundation but rather an imposter pretending to be us, and do not give out any personal information to them.
Scam attempts like this continue to be very common. Be cautious of any message that claims that you have won a large sum of money via a lottery, grant, or award that you know nothing about and have never participated in.
Last updated: April 15, 2016
First published: April 15, 2016
By Brett M. Christensen
About Hoax-Slayer
References
Case Foundation
Case Foundation Wikipedia
Case Foundation Facebook Page
Lottery and Grant Scam Articles – Advance Fee Prize Scams
Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.net/fake-case-foundation-awards-message-is-an-advance-fee-scam/