National Lottery Win an Underwater Adventure...

anguilla

Yesterday I received an email purporting to be from the National Lottery which addressed me by name and included my National Lottery username (text version below):

... the possibilities for adventure are endless with The National Lottery. Right now, we're giving some prized players the chance to win the adventure of a lifetime.

Enter our exclusive prize draw and you could win a trip to Cape Town, South Africa*, where you could swim with sharks, go on safari or just relax in one of the world's
most amazing cities.

Don't miss out! If you have a thirst for adventure, take a chance and enter our exclusive prize draw today.

Enter the prize draw here -
http://nationallotterypdsa2.ioko.<com>/. ...

Even looking at the email header does not give anything away

Received: from mail1.play.national-lottery.co.uk (mail1.play.national-lottery.co.uk [89.248.30.206])

It was the URL that looked suspect so I contacted Customer Support and asked them about it and got the following response:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your email dated 19 March 2010.

We would like to advise you that the email you have received is in no way connected with Camelot or The National Lottery.

Assuming that Customer Services know what they are talking about, extremely worrying is my national lottery username is not used anywhere else and the mail also knew my first name which makes me suspect that the Camelot/National Lottery database has been hacked to at least username level.

If my computer had been hacked (unlikely but possible) then there would have been no need to send the mail as the password would have already been sent to the hackers last time I played.

I would be interested if other people have received mail like this. Everything looked good apart from the URL to enter the draw (and the fact it asked for national lottery username/password).

swingofthings

Definitely sounds like a scam. Of some sort.

Not sure it's a good idea to post the exact URL of the scam site though as someone may accidentally click on the link ?

anguilla

URL edited

jacktyler

i can't read the full link, since you edited it, but rather worryingly, this "competition" has been posted on the comps board and thanked by 83 users :eek:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=30538613

the link posted there is almost identical to what i can see of yours.

from the official national-lottery website, i can find no mention at all of this "competition" so i wonder if that one on the comps board is a scam too? :eek:

the links on the dodgy-looking site, all point to the actual national lottery website (apart from the Ts & Cs).

it does seem very fishy - but very convincing looking. i don't know.