I’m always on the lookouts for scams so that I can warn my readers. Today I’ve come across the first scam for 2019. Believe it or not, it’s the ‘Google Happy New Year’ scam.
Beware The Google Happy New Year Scam
If you get the following Google Happy New Year scam email you must delete it immediately as its definitely a phishing email.
Google Incâ„¢
Belgrave House
76 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 9TQ,
United Kingdom.
Winning No: GUK/877/798/2019
Ticket No: GUK/699/33/2019
"GOOGLE NEW YEAR REWARD"
We wish to congratulate you on this note, for being part of our selected winners in our just concluded internal promotion draw this year, this promotion was set-up to encourage the active users of the Google search engine and the Google ancillary services.
Hence we do believe with your winning prize, you will continue to be an active patronage to the Google search engine and services. Google is now the biggest search engine worldwide and in an effort to make sure that it remains the most widely used search engine, we ran an online e-mail beta draw which your email address won Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling (950,000.00). We wish to formally announce to you that you have successfully passed the requirements, statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report test conducted for all online winners.
A winning check will be issued in your name by Google Promotion Award, for the sum of Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling (950,000.00) and also a certificate of prize claims will be sent alongside your winning check cashable at any bank.
You are advised to contact the assigned Google Program Administrator/Coordinator with the following details to avoid unnecessary delay and complications:
VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM
(1) Your Contact Address/Private Email Address
(2) Your Tel/Fax Numbers
(3) Your Nationality/Country
(4) Your Full Name
(5) Occupation/Company
(6) Age/Gender
(7) Ever Won An Online Lottery?
(8) Comments About Google
Jeffrey Dean - Google Senior Fellow (Program Administrator/Coordinator)
Email: jeffreydean111@yandex.com (Link Removed) (Have to wonder why Google would use yandex as an email)
Tel: 00 44 970 165
Google values your right to privacy! Your information is 100% secured and will be used exclusively for the purpose of this award only.
The Google Promotion Award Team has discovered a huge number of double claims due to winners informing close friends relatives and third parties about their winning and also sharing their pin numbers. As a result of this, these friends try to claim the lottery on behalf of the real winners. The Google Promotion Award Team has reached a decision from its headquarters that any double claim discovered by the Lottery Board will result to the canceling of that particular winning, leading to a loss for both the double claimer and the real winner, as it is taken that the real winner was the informer to the double claimer about the lottery. So you are hereby strongly advised once more to keep your winnings strictly confidential until you claim your prize.
Congratulations from the Staffs & Members of the Google interactive Lotteries Board Commission.
Yours faithfully,
Sundar Pichai
Chief Executive Officer of Google
Remember, if you get this in your email delete it immediately.