Email notification re. National Lottery, is this a scam or spam or both??

Recieved this email today not 1 but 5 of them repeatedly one after another is this a scam or spam or both??


The National Lottery,


P O Box 1010,


Liverpool, L70 1NL UNITED KINGDOM


(Customer Services)


Ref:UK/*********


Batch:************


Dear Winner,


CONGRATULATIONS!This is to inform you that you have been cleared a winner of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY online Sweepstakes International program.


I am happy to inform you,your Original Certificate and your Certified bank cheque has been forwarded to the courier company.


Find below the details of the courier company.


TNT COURIER SERVICE


ADDRESS OF OFFICE: 6 Pages Walk Street


Bermondsey


London


SE1 4SB


NAME:MR TERRY HOPKINS(Dispatch Officer)


EMAIL: tntdept33@hotmail.com


TEL1:+44 703 192 8738


TEL2:+44 703 192 8716


TEL3:+44 703 192 4580


FAX :+44 207 691 7449


You are advised to send the courier company a mail to their email address for their courier cost.When contacting them,you are to include this order number as your subject.Please you are advised to write down the order number and save it.Note: you are to Quote your complete Names,Contact Address,Ref/Batch Numbers and your direct phone number so that they can honour your letter.Once again I say congratulations and always inform me with your dealings with the courier company.











Thanks,


Peter Taylor


Claims Agent


UK National Lottery

Email notification re. National Lottery, is this a scam or spam or both??
no this is a hoax,there is no such thing as this lottery,its just a phishing scam to get your personal %26amp; financial details so they can commit Identity %26amp; financial crimes on their victims








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these are some methods,techniques and websites to minimize the amount of spam messages you receive:





how to minimize the spam emails you receive:


-block the sender/s email address/es


-send the emails to your spam/bulk folder


-ignore them- do not reply


-DO NOT OPEN the e-mails if you know they are spam by the title


-turn on your spam filter


-turn your spam filter to a higher level


spammers have scripts that make thousands and thousands of email addresses really quickly,they then send spam to them...they do not know if the email address exists or does not exit...until you reply or try to unsubscribe,by doing this you are verifying your email is active...they will place it on the special spamming list and sell it on to other spammers at a premium rate meaning you will get a lot more spam





also go to this webpage to learn how to minimize the spam you receive even further: http://www.ncsu.edu/it/essentials/email_...





visit these websites to tackle spam problems: http://www.scambusters.org/stopspam/inde...


http://www.ncsu.edu/it/essentials/email_...


http://www.obviously.com/junkmail/


http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/ya...


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go to this website to look at the latest fraudulent and spam emails being sent to people, it also tells you about internet lottery scams etc: http://www.data-wales.co.uk/nigerian.htm





remember if something sounds to good to be true or you get unsolicited emails of this nature....99.999% of the time they are





stay safe online,know how to spot these tricks of the fraudsters, Don't be the next victim to internet fraud





all the best
Reply:I answered one of these a couple of years ago, and I got $1200! The check was legitimate, but my bank couldn't cash it for some mysterious reason that they never divulged. so I took it to a check-cashing place. A week after I cashed the check, they wanted their money back!





I haven't heard from them in almost 3 years, but I'll never fall for that scam again... DON'T DO IT!!!
Reply:This is a SCAM. Check out the below link for confirmation of various email scams hitting the internet including the Yahoo/MSN lottery scams and how to report them:


http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/lo...


http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/or...


Unscrupulous thieves have sent you this email and they are trying to part you from your hard earned cash. They will often ask you to call a premium rate number and keep you holding on whilst you rack up a huge phone bill. They are then paid a large proportion of this phone bill. They may ask you to divulge personal information about yourself or ask for your bank or credit card details. Do not divulge any such information under any circumstances. It is surprising how many innocent victims have been duped by these types of emails. Just remember the thieves who send them are very clever and extremely convincing. I suggest you delete the email and send it into cyberspace, hopefully along with the thieving scumbags who send them.


Check out these sites for further information :


http://www.scambusters.com


http://www.hoax-slayer.com/
Reply:I'd say it was a scam, just because it sounds similar to the many, many similar scam e-mails i've recieved in the past. I think that the National Lottery would use better English too...
Reply:It's undoubtedbly both a spam and a scam. Just get the message deleted right away. You'll never get anything out of this "bogus" lottery.
Reply:SCAM-O-RAMA!!!!
Reply:SCAM SCAM SCAM





I got one a while ago that said a relative in Japan died and I in-hearted X amount of millions, in which I only had to send in my SS # then I would be set for life. Big red flag. I have no family in Japan.





Do NOT give out any personal info. If you keep getting these report it and each one/time you get one of these messages hit SPAM. The more you open it the more they will send you to con money out of you.





Just remember hand out no personal info. and If it sounds to good to be true most likely it is. Sorry
Reply:I have had the same many times including the ones from Africa, Brazil, India etc, telling me that they want to give me millions of $ if I would send them my bank details etc.





Dont try to phone the numbers they could be premium rate at £1.50 per minute.
Reply:Sounds like a scam to me. Not many large courier companies with a hotmail addy.
Reply:There are tons of these going about. I've had 2 in the past week. Did you play the National Lottery? The only way they'd contact you would be if you played online. Even then, they would normally arrange to have you come down to HQ to discuss payment etc face to face.


There's no harm in contacting the courier to find out what exactly is going on, but odds are it's a big hoax.