Yeah Right, Whatever - it’s a scam

Posted by Tricia in Friday, July 6th 2007   

I just opened some snail mail that I received earlier today. It was one of those letters that said I’d won something. Hmmm what could it be I asked myself.

Obviously I wasn’t that curious about it because I waited about four hours before I opened it.

The letter proclaimed on the front that I was a “Grand Slam” winner.

I’ve apparently won the Grand Slam in our Canadian Lotto 6/49 lottery. All I have to do to claim my prize is send $10 to an Australian address.

The letter doesn’t say how much I won. I’m supposed to trust them and send them my money with no idea if I’ve apparently one a dollar or a million dollars.

Trouble is, our lottery doesn’t function online and there’s nothing called a Grand Slam in the 6/49 lottery.

Sounds like a scam eh? A quick Google search confirmed that it is indeed a scam.

The letter came from Singapore but I’m to return it to Haplin Data Services in Runaway Bay Australia.

Sure … sure I will.

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18 users responded to this post

Karen (4 comments.) said in July 6th, 2007 at 8:29 pm    

Well, isn’t that sweeeeet? Scum around the world unite! How come YOU get all the good mail? All I ever get are shoe catalogues and credit card applications. Oh, and warnings that my student loan needs to be consolidated IMMEDIATELY (too late guys, government’s got it) and that the extended coverage on our car is ABOUT TO EXPIRE!!! Well, in about 2 years or 10 thousand miles. What do they think we are, idiots? I’m gonna have to give them an extra-spitty raspberry and two farts for lack of originality and research. Tsk tsk.

mcewen (1 comments.) said in July 6th, 2007 at 9:02 pm    

There always seem to be so many [scams] Just as you think you’ve heard them all they think up another one.
Best wishes

Mark@CreditCards (1 comments.) said in July 7th, 2007 at 1:36 am    

It’s amazing to me to know that some people are still falling for that stuff. They probably send their $10 in thinking what the heck - it’s worth a shot. They’d be better off speding their time creating some real income.

Steve (2 comments.) said in July 7th, 2007 at 3:19 am    

Love it!

“Runaway Bay”?? Short of sending it from “Thieve’it and leg’it street” what more could they do to announce SCAM?

Steve

Snoskred (2 comments.) said in July 7th, 2007 at 3:41 am    

Hi, I’m reading you via the No Nofollow | I Follow | DoFollow Community at Bumpzee, on the RSS feed.

I’m a scambaiter, this is a topic fairly familiar to me, and I’d never heard of this particular scam. One reason their scams work is because they always think of new things to try.. :( and we can’t get the word out to help educate people fast enough. Paris Hilton is oh so much more important, apparently. ;)

Great blog design! ;)

Looking forward to reading more from you. :)

Emily (2 comments.) said in July 7th, 2007 at 11:29 am    

It’s amazing to me that this stuff ever works when all it took was a two second google search to find out the truth! Hopefully as the internet becomes more widely used (?) people won’t fall for this stuff anymore.

kevin (1 comments.) said in July 8th, 2007 at 3:00 pm    

I have some ocean front property in Arizona I could sell you real cheap.

Susan (2 comments.) said in July 8th, 2007 at 3:05 pm    

Smart consumerism. You can bet though thousands of people were not as clever or as cautious as yourself unfortunately.

cooliojones (13 comments.) said in July 8th, 2007 at 4:17 pm    

I love the ones that come in the mail that look like ‘checks.’ They keep coming up with something new almost every day. And sadly, because people are in so much ‘need’ these days, many will fall for it. Hopefully people can learn from you and be more cautious.

RennyBA (49 comments.) said in July 8th, 2007 at 6:30 pm    

I got a lot of that as spam mail as well. How come people even think they will get their way with it?
Good thing you shared this though, some might!

Johnny Ong (3 comments.) said in July 9th, 2007 at 12:14 am    

i receive tons of such emails and bcuz my profiles in various places has the word sudan or africa (posted there to work), i have lots of africans hunting me down……..hoping that they cld nail 1 victim along their path….sick ppl indeed

Ghosty (2 comments.) said in July 9th, 2007 at 12:44 am    

I’m good to get those things at least every other month. It’s some idiot saying I won a sweeps, or a vacation in Maui, or a car or whatever, and all they need is a ‘processing fee’ and I’m on my way. Amazing.

Jill (0 comments.) said in July 9th, 2007 at 7:09 pm    

I got one of those “Grand Slam Winner” notifications in the mail today, which is how I found you. I was researching it online to see how big a scam it really was….glad to see I’m not the only one to get the mail! I feel sorry for seniors, who likely believe it, and send their money. Would be interesting to know just how much these scumbags make off people around the world.

Kevin Harrington (1 comments.) said in September 19th, 2007 at 5:10 pm    

Haplin Data Services is one of the hundreds of attempts made on my partner’s time and money since 1997. People must be educated, that’s why I set up my website and message board.

Kevin, aka Astrocat’s Postal Scam Warning Page.

jait (0 comments.) said in October 26th, 2007 at 7:42 pm    

funny stuff.

The one I received told me to send $10 to claim my “number alloction”–so…. ten dollars to get a number. They send me a number, no money, and they’ve met their obligations…

Of course, the big tip off for me is the fact that I don’t gamble. I’m more interested in knowing how they got my name and address.

marsh (0 comments.) said in October 29th, 2007 at 4:16 pm    

With reference to Jait’s concern, You must have recently filled out a survey etc. on the net. Try misspelling your name slightly eg.Jate. see how long it takes for mail to show up for ” Jate”

Lise C. Gervais (0 comments.) said in October 30th, 2007 at 12:26 pm    

Oh ya got in the mail Grand Slam winner of the Canadian 6/40 lottery ….. send $10.00 duh. Do you think I will pay to get a reward. Nice try but no thanks. I am not interested in your big scam.

Martin Kusk (0 comments.) said in February 8th, 2008 at 5:41 pm    

I just got one of those scam letters too, googled and found you. I would like to put something clever in the envelope like a bill for wasting my time to be paid immediately. Postage is paid so I’d like to send them something…any dieas out there?

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