Outline:
Email claims that you have been selected as the winner of $850,000.00, an iPhone 6, and other goodies in this year’s edition of the Apple On-line Awareness Sweepstakes Programme (AOASP 2016). The email advises you to contact the recommended courier company to arrange delivery of your bank draft and other prize items.
Brief Analysis:
The email has no connection to Apple, there is no such thing as the ‘Apple On-line Awareness Sweepstakes Programme’, and you have won nothing at all (not even a Face Cap). The email is an advance fee scam designed to trick you into sending your money and personal information to criminals.
APPLE ON-LINE AWARENESS SWEEPSTAKES
235 REGENT STREET, MAYFAIR
LONDON, W1B 2EH
UNITED KINGDOM.14-03-2016Attention : [Name Removed] APPROVED FOR PAYMENTThe Board of Directors, Members of Staff of Apple Awareness Promotion Department, wish to congratulate you as one of our Seven (7) Star Prize Winners of this year’s edition of Apple On-line Awareness Sweepstakes Programme (AOASP 2016) held in England on the 19th of March, 2016. The selection process was carried out through a Computerized E-mail Selection System (C.E.S.S.) from a database where over three million e-mail addresses from the World Wide Web (WWW) were used. This means that no purchase of tickets are required to participate in this programme, it was a random selection and your e-mail address ( )was luckily selected. This makes you a bonafied winner of the sum of $850,000.00 USD (Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars) and one iPhone 6+ Hand-held device. This programme) was held in commemoration of the co-founder of Apple Inc.( Steve Jobs) and also to promote iPhone 6+ gadget which comes handy with improved technology.Your details have been received and recorded on our database and following our verification report, I wish to formally inform you that you have successfully passed our e-mail screening and verification form match test conducted for all lucky winners in this category, this makes you a registered winner. We hope that part of your winnings will be used to support charity in your immediate society.
To begin your prize payment process, we have issued a bank draft in your name. Your prize comes along with other consolation items such as Apple T-shirt, Face Cap and Umbrella. However, legal documents such as a winning certificate and an appointment letter has also been processed in your name.
In reference to the above, we would recommend our affiliate courier company here in the UK which is a well trusted delivery company capable of handling the delivery of vital packages as yours to any part of the world with utmost efficiency, speed and security. Kindly contact and arrange with them to pick up your prize Items from our office for immediate delivery to you. Items to be delivered to you are listed below.
I. Apple On-line Awareness Sweepstakes Winning Certificate
II. Certified Bank Draft of $850,000.00 USD
III. iPhone 6+ handheld device
IV. Face Cap (2), T-Shirt (3), Umbrella (1)
Be informed that Apple On-line Awareness Sweepstakes Office has release your prize items to the courier company and awaits shipment. Please note that we are not responsible for delivery expenses that may arise due to your location. Kindly contact the courier through the contact information below;
Akis Express Courier and Diplomatic Company
Senior Delivery Officer: Tony Stephenson
E-mail: akisexpress@outlook.com
Tel:
[removed]
To enable the courier respond to you in a timely manner, provide them with this identification number {AESOP/MDW/6387} as the subject of your correspondence with them.. This is one of the measures put in place to avoid impersonation. On this note, we advice you to keep this notification confidential until you prize items get to you for security reasons.
Once again, Congratulations!
Yours Sincerely,
Sir. Harry Thompson.
(Claims agent)
Apple On-line Awareness Sweepstakes Programme.
Confidential Note: This email was sent from an email account of Apple Inc. Staff. The information contained in this message is confidential and/or privileged. This message is intended to be read only by the person named above. The unauthorized use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this message is strictly prohibited. If you are not the addressee or responsible for delivery of the message to the addressee, please notify the originator by returning the message and destroy the original message.
Detailed Analysis:
According to this email, you are the lucky winner of $850,000.00 in this year’s ‘Apple On-line Awareness Sweepstakes Programme’ (AOASP). And as well as the cash, claims the email, you’ve won an Apple iPhone 6 ‘handheld device’, two face caps, three t-shirts, and an umbrella! The email congratulates you on behalf of the Board of Directors and the staff of the ‘Apple Awareness Promotion Department’. Apparently, your email address was randomly selected as a winner via a Computerized E-mail Selection System (C.E.S.S.), no less! AOASP, claims the email, is held in commemoration of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Supposedly, your prize package, which includes a bank draft for your $850,000 along with a Winning Certificate and the other goodies mentioned, is all approved and awaiting shipment. All you need do to claim your prize is contact the recommended courier and arrange shipment to your address.
Excited yet? But, alas, I have very sad news for you. None of this is real! The email is not from Apple. There is no such thing as the Apple On-line Awareness Sweepstakes Programme. You haven’t won $850,000. You haven’t won one of those fancy Apple ‘handheld device’ gadget thingies ( I think they are usually called ‘phones’, but I could be wrong). In fact, you haven’t even won a lowly face cap!
The email is just another scam designed to trick you into sending your money to grubby little crooks. If you contact the ‘Senior Delivery Officer’ at the suggested courier company, you will be told that you must wire the delivery fee to the company before your prize package can be sent. Of course, the ‘Senior Delivery Officer’ is actually the same scammer who sent the email in the first place and the ‘delivery fee’ you wire will go directly to him. If you do send money, the scammer will most likely continue to request more and more fees for various ‘unexpected’ expenses before finally disappearing forever into the dark depths of cyberspace with your hard-earned in his pockets.
And, perhaps during your back and fourth dialogue with him, he managed to extract a good deal of your personal and financial information. Perhaps he told you that he needed all that personal data to verify your claim and satisfy documentation requirements. And, perhaps, now that he has your information, he’ll be able to steal your identity as well as your money.
Unfortunately, while scam attempts like this one may seem quite transparent and easily detectable to more savvy Internet users, there are still plenty of people that are susceptible to such scams, perhaps through naivety, lack of experience, or other vulnerabilities. Such scams continue to find new victims every day. The reason that scammers continue to blast out such fraudulent missives is that they still work!
Last updated: March 17, 2016
First published: March 17, 2016
By Brett M. Christensen
About Hoax-Slayer
References
Advance Fee Lottery Scams – International Lottery Scam Information
Microsoft, Yahoo, Google Lottery Scam
Wait, Do You REALLY Think People Deserve To Be Scammed?
Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.net/apple-on-line-awareness-sweepstakes-advance-fee-lottery-scam/