Why do people ask if emails of money prizes are scams?

Question

Every day I see several questions along the lines of "..I have received an email telling me I have won 2 million in the lottery. Is this a scam".

How can people genuinely think that they have won a competition that they never entered, and never bought a ticket for?

I presume that the scammers do actually find this a lucrative market, the mind boggles.

Answer 1

because they pray on the vulnerable and those that live in hope of a better tomorrow

Answer 2

"never underestimate the power of human stupidity"

Answer 3

I think that if people kept three things in mind, they'd never fall for another con-job, online and in "real" life:

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

2. You can't get something for nothing.

3. You get what you pay for.

Answer 4

Greed switches off common sense in a HUGE percentage of the population.

The most incredible the sum, the more some people will need to beleive it to be true.

Some folks will actually be suckered in REPEATEDLY on one sting - very sad.

Mark

PS: LOL I *think* NellyNo is saying what she did tongue in cheek - but ther are folks who DO send of their fees.

Answer 5

Same reason most people couldn't tell you who the Vice President is.  Most people these days are ignorant morons.

Answer 6

Because you are smarter than they are.

Answer 7

These people are 2 things: 1. Naive and

2. greedy.

There are many Nigerian scams that are showing up nowadays. Please read the following carefully:

Another new popular scam is the lottery scam:

There is no Overseas Lottery International, YAHOO & MSN Lotteries, Yahoo online dept., UK (United Kingdom) Lottery, Netherlands Lottery, British Lottery, Thunderball Online Lottery in the UK, Australian Lottery, Spanish Lottery, Yahoo Lottery Microsoft Lottery (emmulating from the UK or anywhere else) or any other form of lottery you can win without buying a ticket. While some people might only copy and paste such email to their answer with a brief take on it, I will go into detail because I'm tired of this trash, as several of my friends have lost their a$$es to this scam. This is about as far away from legitimate as anything can get, whether it be a contest, promotion, or whatever.

There exists a certain form of immoral degenerate that trolls the internet searching for suckers who believe that they have gotten very lucky and won a lottery which they have never entered. They will probably entice you to send an advance fee to claim your non-existant winnings and if you do send this money, you can kiss it goodbye. The money will likely be en-route to Nigeria, a cesspool of fraud that has been the center of these types of fraud over the last few decades.

The best thing to do is to delete such emails immediately and to never reply to them. If you even reply, you risk having your email inbox flooded. If you call these people, expect to be harrassed over the phone at all hours of the night! In some cases, people who travel to claim their winnings in Nigeria are taken hostage, and in worse-case scenarios are killed when whoever is paying ransom payments exhausts their money supply. If anything online sounds to good to be true it always is buddy.

By the way, I have kind of become an anti-scam activists due to the fact that I have many friends who have had their identities and life savings stolen from them via these methods.

This is simply advance fee fraud (a prevalent type of fraud which continously asks for money to cover unforseen expenses) and is intended to drain your bank account, promising money that simply does not exist. Hopefully, this answers your question.

If you have any more questions, do a yahoo search on lottery scams, nigeria 419 scams, internet fraud, or advance fee fraud. You can also read more about this at www.secretservice.gov and www.419eater.com!

If you have lost money you should report it to the U.S. Secret Service at www.secretservice.gov

Now you know the basics of Advance Fee Fraud, a multi-million dollar industry that costs honest people their life savings everyday. Be happy you weren't duped by this scam!

I hope this is helpful, because I could sure use a best answer! I would appreciate it!

Answer 8

Because people are living in hope that something nice will happen to them, so they want it not to be a scam.

Answer 9

Because they want someone to tell them they HAVE won.  Its called blind hope... I also assume that some people do actually reply and give their bank details or there wouldn't be so many of them chancing their arm..

Answer 10

Ahh. That, my friend, is false hope. Money is wanted and needed so badly. People are kind of brainwashed into thinking they just might have actually won something. Those ads annoy the c**p out of me.

Answer 11

I hope nellynoo was just joking with her answer!

The simple answer is you get nothing for nothing in this world.

Although I am just learning how to use a computer I have been the millionth person to log on to a particular sight on five occasions within a month!   Yet another scam methinks.

Answer 12

good question. but that isssue puzzles me, especially the fact that many  of many them come from the UK  and I assume many of these people live in the US.

Answer 13

Because they live under a rock and don't think to google the name of the company at all.  Nor do they think for a moment that they can't possiby win some contest the did not enter.

Answer 14

#1 - because they have no common sense and reasoning skills

#2- -deep down they want to believe it.

Answer 15

Because they are not as educated as you are in the ways of the con artist. Some people would like to believe that their ship has come in and today is their lucky day. That is the attitude that scammers rely on to make their dishonest living. If you agree with this and would like to set up a fund to eradicate scamming please send £10 to . . . . . . . . . . . . .