The countdown is running: There are only 35 days left until the huge media event of 2010's summer begins: The FIFA World Cup TM in South Africa begins. People all over the world anticipate the big spectacle and so do scammers! G Data spotted fake FIFA mails, which promise a prize, allegedly drawn during the "South Africa 2010 promotions draw" - A classic case of Nigeria scam.
This very impersonal mail is a typical example for Nigeria scam, also called 419 scam.
The stated telephone number is a UK mobile phone number. Regarding the email address it is notable that both, the sender's address and the agent's address, free email service addresses (gmail.com and yahoo.fr) without any connection to a legitimate organization. To compensate this missing credibility, the scammers inserted copied picture fragments fom the official fifa.com website.
FIFA itself already published several official warnings regarding these lottery scams. The latest was published in February 2010.
All attempts to contact the provided email address remained unanswered.
Advice:
- Emails like this should be deleted immediately.
- One should never reply to these mails and definitely not provide any personal information
- One should never make any payment or foward money for them