14 DAY TRIAL // Leveraging the names of real lottery winners is a tactic often used by fraudsters for online lottery scams. Security experts say they’re seeing a lot of 419 scam emails that use the names of various people who have won the lottery to make the bogus story more convincing.
Kaspersky experts have spotted lottery scam emails that leverage the names of Adrian and Gillian Bayford, who won the lottery in August 2012, Gareth and Catherine Bull, who won in January 2012, and Tom Crist, who hit the jackpot in May 2013.
Since some of these people have made donations, many of those who receive the scam messages might not question their legitimacy.
If you’re thinking “no one falls for these scams,” you’re wrong. In January, the Calgary Sun reported that a US woman fell victim to scammers who sent out bogus emails that used the name of Tom Crist.
Check out the gallery to see what these emails look like.
