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August 29, 2010

Don't be taken in by this variation of the 419 lottery scam. The text portion of the message is as follows:

Dear Winner,

Find attached your winning Notification,in the Shell 2010 Online drwas.
Do contact our payment Manager for the immediate release of your funds.
Name: Attorney Cynthia Benton
Email address:[removed]@yahoo.com.hk
Phone/Fax: +44-7624-[removed]
Congratulations!!!!!
Shell Payment Department London.
30/08/2010

The message includes an image containing the Shell corporate logo:

Greedy recipients of this message won't realize that the email address of their contact is a free account from Yahoo! Hong Kong. Think for a minute: Why would a gigantic oil corporation not use its own email system for this highly valued award? (And, if you knew how to read email headers, you'd also ask why Shell Oil U.K. would send you a prize winning notification through a botnet computer in Taiwan.)

If you get sucked into communicating with these crooks (the phone number is for a cell phone, by the way), they'll get you to fork over all kinds of fees and taxes out of your own money, and you'll never see a dime of the award money. It doesn't exist. Shell Oil does not give away money like this. This scam has been running for years and years under the guise of other corporate and government sponsorships.

That's right, hit Delete. Now.