14 DAY TRIAL // Ryan Knight, Community Manager at Yahoo! Mail, warns people not to fall for the latest trick involving one of the company’s products. A so-called Yahoo! Lottery, promising prizes worth £250,000 (over $450,000), ask users to disclose certain personal details to a “staff member” in order to receive the sum.
In this particular case, it's hard to be believe that someone can’t actually tell that the “lottery” is nothing more than just a hoax. And this is not only because, generally, what sounds too good to be true probably is, but also because the email sent by the scammers is written in such a broken English that it makes all other poorly-worded texts employed by people looking for an easy buck fall in the background.
A fragment of the text goes like this: “This is to inform you that your email have won a price money of TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE THOUSAND UNITED KINGDOM POUNDS in a Lottery promotion organized by Yahoo Lottery INC for the introduction of All New Yahoo Mail Beta and Yahoo Male Classic which all YAHOO users are required to switch onto.” For one, the text includes various spellings for the name of the company, including a version all written in caps, and with or without an exclamation mark. Another easily noticeable typo is “price,” which refers to what should have been the “prize” of the lottery.
However, some errors and inadvertences within the so-called “announcement” are actually completely hilarious. “Yahoo Male” stands, of course, for one of the new products to be released by the company. In the meanwhile, the email address of the contact person is hosted by Google, Yahoo!'s long time rival.
“While phishing messages are known for their bad grammar and spelling, this one really sinks to new lows.” says Ryan Knight. At the same time, he reminds people to keep their personal information for themselves, since no company would ever ask them to disclose it. Also, official websites should be accessed from their homepage and not via links that can be found in such emails, adds the official.