The day I became rich. ....well. ......almost….....

For a minute, I was happy. How did I get so lucky? Am I really eligible to receive eight hundred and fifty thousand Euros? Wow! My life is made. Now I can start planning to live like Richie Rich! I thought of buying an airplane of my own, or perhaps I would go for a world trip. Maybe I could donate some money to some charities too. I wanted to figure out how would I start spending such a big amount of money that I was promised on the net by an unknown ‘claim agent’ called Mr. William Ruffin of ‘Award free lotto company promotion’ who put my email address without my permission and drew out a lucky stake for me. I quickly made a note of telephone number, ticket number, serial number, and lucky number; I wrote in a small piece of paper and hid it in the dark corner of my desk. I was advised not to mention it to anybody till I get the full amount. It was a big, sweet secret. But, I wanted to make sure that it was real. Was the lady luck smiling on me? Thank God we have internet, where we can do the research on everything. And my research saved me from making a fool of myself. I soon discovered that it was a scam lottery. I discovered that I cannot win a legitimate lottery if I have not entered it. I have never even bought a lottery from any corner stores in my life. To win a lottery we must purchase a ticket to enter a legitimate lottery. If the claim agent has my email and my serial numbers, lottery numbers, etc, that I don’t have any knowledge of, why can’t he, the claim agent, pocket it? Why does he have to inform me? NO legitimate lottery contacts winners. Winners must always contact the lottery first. And then I will be told to pay some amount for some formalities of transferring the money to me. You never have to pay to collect winnings from a legitimate lottery or sweepstake. You pay taxes AFTER you receive the winnings. There are no other fees. I live in India, we have here our own lottery system. It is illegal under federal law to play ANY foreign lottery from the United States or Europe. My email was from ‘International email free lotto’. It is true that the scammers often use the name of a legitimate lottery in the scam. Since scammers simply invent new names for their fake lottery scams, it is more accurate to say that if you do not see the lottery on the list of legitimate lotteries, it is probably a scam. The best way to treat these "prize notification" from a lottery is to ignore it. We should not respond to these emails, nor EVER pay any money in advance to collect a prize. We must not reveal our full identity, nor reveal any financial or personal information, such as your bank account number or credit card details If you've wondered just how these scams unfold, and what happens at each stage, here is the step by step description of the typical lottery, Nigerian, AFF etc. scam: The scammers get your name and email address, physical address or phone number from somewhere online. Then he writes up a scam email or letter. Nothing in the winning notification letter is true. Don't rely on appearances. They may copy logos, photos, names, addresses and website links from real, legitimate organizations, to make their scam appear more genuine. You receive the email, letter or call. You feel happy and you contact the scammers and give them personal information. After you answer the first letter, they will write back asking for your personal identification. Sometimes, they ask for this information in the first email. This is used to steal your identity. They steal your identity by using your personal banking information, passport number, driver's license number, or credit card information. They don't care whether your credit is good or bad. They use this information to open accounts you don't know about and buy things, or commit crimes on these credit cards, in your name and then do not pay for them. Sometimes they may send you a cashier's check, DON’T EVER CASH IT. The check or money order you have received is certain to be COUNTERFEIT or stolen. If you cash it, you will be responsible for the entire amount. You may also be arrested for fraud. Legitimate lottery winnings are sent by check using DHL, UPS, or FedEx. The check has the lottery company name on it, no other names. You can go to this website and verify the routing number on the check and get the bank's phone number, then call the bank to verify that the account is real and the check is real. And thus, I was convinced that it was spam, I quietly checked the email of ‘the Award money’ and slowly clicked the button ‘delete’ and reported it to spam so that it would haunt me no more. My dreams of living like ‘Richie Rich’ evaporated. I continue to live on my own steady income and forget about eight hundred and fifty thousand Euros that had made me rich…well……almost….if only it was true.