Alert - SMS Lotto Gewinnspiel

There are a lot of scams around these days, most come in via e-mail but the following is one I received by SMS. Here it is together with an explanation:

+447484732319 Congratulations! You have won 2,000,000. WIN No:HNNSY-251-4577509. Email: lotto.gewinnspiel@gmail.com Now Claim Your winnings.

It says I've won a lot of money and without thinking I wonder how I can get my hands on the cash! 

STOP!!!

Don't click anything! 

It looks a bit fishy doesn't it!?! 

Look carefully at the above screen shot and you'll see:

• The mobile number it came from is a UK number (+44)
• The prize is in euros, not pounds
• The email address is lotto.gewinnspiel@gmail.com - the word "gewinnspiel" is German, I looked it up in Google Translator and it means "contest"
• I didn't enter a lottery! 
• I didn't enter a lottery where I gave my mobile number!

If you put the above observations together you can see there is no way this can be true. It is a scam! Why is it from a UK number but there's a German word in the e-mail address? Why am I being sent this, I didn't enter a lottery. If I have recently entered any lottery, did I give my mobile number, if not then how did they send this SMS to me? Wouldn't they send me an e-mail perhaps?

Think carefully when you receive e-mails or SMS text messages like this one. If the information is not consistent, if you didn't sign up for something or enter a competition, or if it's just too good to be true - it's very likely to be a scam! 

Delete such messages and stay safe!

Reference

For a very detailed look at a similar scam please see the following link:

https://blog.avast.com/2013/09/10/congrats-your-mobile-number-was-selected-as-a-winner-of-l-2000000-00/   [Last accessed August 2016]

The above page is on the AVAST website. AVAST are an established and well known anti-malware company.