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Sept 4, 2002 Do you love playing lotto on the net? There are thousands of lotto programs many of them even free. Yeah, right, why not take a shot for the chance to get rich quick? Okay, let me tell you a story. One Saturday evening an excited friend called me saying she just received message that she actually won $1,500,000.00 in lotto. “What? Did I hear you right? When? How?” came all my questions. I was as excited as she. “Over the internet and it’s from South Africa. But please, she said, don’t mention it to anyone. I just called you to figure it out because I’m not sure whether it’s for real or not.” "Okay! Sit down and tell me the whole story," I replied. According to the message she/her company was among the 15 international winners selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 30,000 names as part of the company’s International promotions program. Ain’t she lucky! My friend however, could not remember which program it was because she had joined a lot of them. To begin to claim her prize she should contact her “Claims Officer” and not the lotto company itself. Why? It’s part of the rules. She should not reply to the company and must instead address all her questions/claims to the said claims officer. Any breach of confidentiality will result to disqualification. Hmmm. Helga (my friend) then proceeded to send a letter to a certain Mr. Jackson who was supposed to be the Foreign Service Manager of another company. He replied with a form she should fill up which she then send back right after. She lost sleep thinking about the possible things she would do with the money but also had a feeling of apprehension. Next came another message which was supposedly the Final notice (after just one or two letters!) On the third day,she called Mr. Jackson but he was on a meeting the whole day. However, she could leave a message. She said she had some questions about claiming her prize but the one who took the call said it’s best if she talk to Mr. Jackson herself. My poor friend lost another day of sleep! Finally she was able to talk with him, said he sounded very friendly. But wait, what’s this money she had to pay before she can actually claim her prize? "Yes, mam, you have to pay $2,500.00 (!) to cover cost of paperwork and other things needed to make sure you get your prize," Mr.Jackson again. "But I don’t have that much money! Can you not take the money from my winnings?," asked Helga. To which Mr. Jackson replied "Of course not because we must abide by the rules and you must consider that it’s “nothing” compared to the money you’re going to receive." He then asked when she could send the money so they can immediately send her her prize? Helga said she will think it over. The next day Helga and I proceeded to do a little investigation. We contacted the telephone company and asked about the telephone number and the fax number Mr. Jackson provided in the letter. Both fax and telephone numbers were actually mobile phones! There was also something wrong with the area code when we checked the international directory. We then checked the websites provided, both the lotto company and Mr.Jackson’s actually existed but there’s not much on the websites either. Lastly we contacted the South African embassy to which a not very friendly employee said “We have nothing to do with it. We have heard a lot of people complaining about bogus things involving money on the net where South Africa is involved and believe me, we have nothing to do with it. And it’s hurting the country’s name of course!” She then said that we could send them copy of the letter and there’s not much they can do because it’s not part of their job. Thanks anyway. So, there goes Helga’s million dollars in smoke! She never heard anything from Mr.Jackson since then. Of course common sense tells you something is wrong right away if you had to pay lots of money to claim your prize and without any guarantee at all. But when one is faced with the prospect of receiving million dollars for peanuts one could actually make a disastrous decision which is to give the thousand dollars they were asking for! One would probably say, well, what do you expect, that’s South Africa! But, wait here, a few days ago I received exactly the same letter saying I have won as much money as Helga but this time it’s from The Netherlands! The only things changed are the names and the addresses, the rest were exactly the same like night and day! To think that I did not even played lotto on the internet! It claimed that the actual draw of winners were held May 19, 2002 and they sent me the first announcement last week of August. The FINAL NOTICE stated 31st of August and I received only one announcement plus the final notice. Whew! So there, my friends! I know you also feel like wriggling the necks off these scalawags but since we can’t find them right now, be sure to watch out for scams like these! ------------ Jhoni Pedersen is a weekly "internet" columnist for Useless-Knowledge.com. She is a 38 year-old proud mom of a wacky 3 year- old little boy living in Denmark. Email Jhoni: jhoni@pinayden.dk Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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