Days before the start of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, which will take place in Poland and Ukraine, security experts have found an email lottery campaign that tries to dupe unsuspecting Internet users into handing over their personal data and maybe even some money.
Similar to other typical lottery schemes, the message informs the recipient that his/her email address has been selected from
zillions of other addresses.
The sample
provided by Symantec, which comes with an attached PDF file, contains a fairly long explanation in which the scammers try to convince the internaut that the notification is valid and that it really comes from a “FIFA UEFA Official Accredited Agent.”
“This is to inform you that you have won prize money of Four Million British Pounds (GBP 4,000,000.00) for this month, December’s prize promotion which is organized by FIFA in conjunction with Poland and Ukraine for the UEFA EURO 2012 Cup,” reads the fake email.
“Among the millions of subscribers to the Global E-mail Providers Data and E-mails Draw, we select of one million E-mail addresses as part of the draw in which winners are picked by a Computer Electronic Balloting Programmed System for this promotion, which was held in Poland & Ukraine.”
The fact that it’s poorly written and filled with apparently sophisticated terms, such as the “computer electronic balloting programmed system,” should be seen as clear signs of a typical 419 scam.
A form that requests the potential victim’s name, address, age, occupation and phone number is displayed at the end.
Of course, we all know what happens next. The fraudsters either settle with the information they obtain and use it to launch other targeted attacks, or they push for more and try to get the user to send over some money that’s allegedly needed to complete the transaction.
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