A 419 scam is in circulation which combines lottery winners and a US-based foundation to trick people into handing over personal information.
In 2016, “Britain’s biggest ever lottery winners” David and Carol Martin picked up a cheque for some £33 million pounds. Prior to that, in 2001 a US based Foundation was set up called The Martin Family Foundation which was designed to “give back to communities in which (the founder) and his family live”. Scammers have mashed both together and come up with the below missive:
You have been randomly selected by the Martin Family Foundation to receive the sum of One Million Pounds(£1 Million),After scooping £33 million - which is roughly half of Britain's biggest ever Lotto jackpot. We decided to setup a foundation which main aim is to Bring Relief and Joy to Families around the world, See News link for more on our winnings dailymail(dot)co(dot)uk/news/article-3397182/Winners-biggest-Lotto-jackpot-revealed-Husband-wife-Scotland-scoop-33million.htmlKindly forward the following information to Know more about this offer :
Your Full Name: Contact Address/Country: Date of Birth: Sex: Phone number:
Sincerely, Martin Family Foundation.
You won’t win anything by responding to this mail besides headaches, so delete / ignore as necessary and don’t be fooled by promises of free millions. Scammers regularly ride on the coat-tails of real world individuals and entities in order to appear more convincing, and this is one such example – avoid!
Christopher Boyd
