According to this email, you have won the sum of £750,000 in a Google Award. The message claims that your email address was randomly chosen as the winning entry via an ‘online email balloting’ supposedly designed to ensure that Google remains the most popular search engine. You are instructed to contact the ‘Google Award Claims Manager’ after filling in a ‘verification form’.
However, the message is not from Google, and neither the prize money nor the promotion award itself actually exist. In fact, the message is part of a very common scam designed to trick recipients into sending money and personal information to Internet criminals. Those who fall for the ruse and reply to claim their ‘winnings’ will soon be asked to pay upfront fees that are supposedly required to procure the release of the funds. The scammers will invent various excuses as to why these fees are necessary and will insist that the fees cannot be deducted from the prize money itself.
For example, they may claim that obligatory insurance or legal fees need to be paid in advance before the supposed prize money can be released. Or they may claim that various government levies or taxes must be paid before any prize funds can be transferred overseas. Any money sent by the victim will, of course, be pocketed by the scammers. In some cases, in desperate and entirely futile attempts to get their money back, victims may continue to send money to the scammers even after they suspect or have been informed that they are being conned.
Moreover, during the course of the scam, the victims may provide enough personal and financial information to allow the scammers to steal their identity.
By asking that their victim keeps the ‘win’ confidential, the scammers lessen the chance that he or she will be told the truth about the scam attempt by a more knowledgeable friend. Such a claim, along with other factors such as poor spelling and grammar, and blatant requests for sensitive personal information via unsecured email can serve as early warning indicators that a message may be an advance fee scam.
In fact, no legitimate organization would ever run a promotion in which winners are chosen via the random selection of an email address without their knowledge. Any message that claims that the recipient has won a large sum of money or valuable prizes in a promotion for which he or she has never bought a ticket or completed an entry form is likely to be an advance fee scam and should be treated with due caution. If you receive such a scam, do not reply to the message. Do not open any attachments or click on any links that the message may contain and do not attempt to make contact with the scammers via any means.
Example
Subject: Notification
Congratulations from the Staff & Members of Google Board Commission.
Dr. Eric Schmidt.
The email includes a Microsoft Word document that contains the following information.
Dear Lucky Winner.
Your Award Winning Details.
Code Number: GUK/3554749405GK
Ticket No: GUK/1008272745GK
Winning Number: GUK/99334353734GK
We wish to congratulate you on this note, for being one of our lucky winners selected this year. This promotion was set-up to encourage the active use of the Google search engine and the Google ancillary services. Hence we do believe with your winning prize, you will continue to be active and patronage to this company. Google is now the world leading search engine worldwide and in an effort to make sure that it remains the most widely used search engine, an online e-mail balloting was carried out on the 18th Of July, 2015 without your knowledge and was officially released recently.
We wish to formally announce to you that your email address was attached to a lump sum of £750,000.00 {Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling} only.
A winning Cheque will be issued in your name by the Google Promotion Award Team, and also a certificate of prize claims will be sent alongside your winning Cheque.
Information’s required from you are part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. To claim your won prize, please contact the Google Award claims Manager (Mr. Kennedy Watson) neatly filling the Verification form below.
VERIFICATION FORM
• First Name
• Last Name
• Residential Address
• Telephone/ Mobile
• Fax Number
• Nationality/Country
• Date Of Birth (dd/mm/yy)
• Sex
• Occupation/Position Held
• Marital Status
• Amount Won
• Alternate Email
• Ever Won An Online Lottery Before? Yes/No
You are advised to contact your Foreign Claims Manager with his private email details below to avoid unnecessary delay and complications:
**************************************************
GOOGLE AWARD CLAIMS MANAGER.
Mr. Kennedy Watson
E-mail: [removed]
Tel:[removed]
Tel: [removed]
************************************************
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information’s confidential till your claims have been processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned.
Note: You can fill your payment release form by printing and manually filling or you can fill directly on mail, or provide the details on Microsoft Word.
Please do not reply if you are NOT the owner of this email address.
Congratulations from the Staffs & Members of Google Board Commission
Google CEO Eric Schmidt
Executive Chairman of Google
Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.net/google-award-advance-fee-scam/