During the time of the big powerball jackpot I had mentioned the lottery scam in Massachusetts. I had heard it had been discovered and shut down. I was curious to see if there was any additional information on it. Sure enough, there was a lot.
On July 9, 2003 a spokesman for the Mass lottery, Amy Morris, says that the lottery had received "wellover 200 e-mails" to date from people contacted, with calls from Australia, New Zealand, Wales and elsewhere. They believe this is only a small percentage.
One part, I find confusing and I would like to say early on, this article does not say if these people had actually purchased powerball tickets. I would have liked this information for verification.
Here is how the scam worked. A message would appear in your e-mail box from "administrator" advising you that you had won $30,000 from the Mass. State Lottery. You would be dircted to the "official" web site of the Mass lottery at mass-lottery org ( the authentic site is at masslottery.com). You are given a user name and password that you can supposedly use to claim your prize.
The fake site supposedly looks very authentic in every detail.
When you log in to collect your prize; you are faced with a message congratulating you on your spectacular luck". Your first hint that something is not kosher is all the misspelled words, typos, awkward phrasing.....etc.
Next big tip-off comes next. The message states that "if you are not a U.S. resident, not resident in the State of Mass., be required to pay the US$500.00 gaming tax. If you are from outside the US will have to pay US$100.00 foreign gaming tax".
At that point if you chose to continue on you would be asked to give up a credit card number, social security number , and other personal information.
I found all of this information very interesting as Todd had recommended I play the powerball online. But I felt it was risky.
I do not know how to put the link for this on here for you. But went in to vote at biggame and just backtracked until I found some information on it. I clicked on more information which then took me to CNNMONEY. So, if someone would like to would you find the info and put in a link for me. I would really appreciate it. Thanks.