Avoid getting scammed by fake "BRITISH CAMELOT ONLINE LOTTERY" emails
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on
What kind of email is "BRITISH CAMELOT ONLINE LOTTERY"?
After inspecting the "BRITISH CAMELOT ONLINE LOTTERY" email, we determined that it is spam operating as a phishing scam. It targets personally identifiable information by claiming that it must be provided to claim the lottery prize that the recipient has won.
It must be emphasized that these claims are false, and this spam mail is in no way associated with the Camelot Group, EuroMillions, or any other legitimate entities.
"BRITISH CAMELOT ONLINE LOTTERY" email scam overview
The email with the subject "You have WON!!!" (may vary) is presented as a final reminder to claim the prize that the recipient has won from the Camelot (National Lottery [UK]) and EuroMillions lotteries.
The scam states that on a certain date, the recipient's email address was randomly selected as a winner of the £7,440,150.00 GBP prize. The winnings must be claimed before the provided date - else they will be forfeited. To create the impression of legitimacy, the spam letter contains a link to the legitimate UK National Lottery's webpage listing unclaimed prizes.
The scam urges to email the following information to the provided contact: first name, surname, age, sex, occupation, address, and mobile phone number. The information obtained through such scams can be variously misused for profit, e.g., sold to third-parties (potentially, cyber criminals), used to craft personalized schemes, and so on.
To summarize, by trusting emails like "BRITISH CAMELOT ONLINE LOTTERY" - users can experience system infections, severe privacy issues, financial losses, and even identity theft.
If you have disclosed your personally identifiable details or other sensitive information to scammers - contact the appropriate authorities without delay.
| Name | "BRITISH CAMELOT ONLINE LOTTERY" phishing email |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Fake Claim | The recipient has won a lottery and must provide their personal data to claim the prize. |
| Disguise | Camelot Group and EuroMillions |
| Symptoms | Unauthorized online purchases, changed online account passwords, identity theft, illegal access of the computer. |
| Distribution methods | Deceptive emails, rogue online pop-up ads, search engine poisoning techniques, misspelled domains. |
| Damage | Loss of sensitive private information, monetary loss, identity theft. |
| Malware Removal (Windows) | To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. |
Phishing spam campaign examples
We have analyzed thousands of spam emails; "YоuTubе Suppоrt Shared An Item", "FIFTH THIRD BANK email scam", "Board Approved Payroll", and "Email Security Update Scam" are merely some examples of ones used for phishing.
In addition to various scams, these letters are used to distribute trojans, ransomware, and other malware. This mail is usually presented as "official", "important", "urgent", or otherwise leverages user emotion to gain and subsequently abuse their trust.
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Spam campaigns proliferate malware by distributing malicious files. They can be attached to the letters. Alternatively, the emails can contain links leading to sites designed to trick visitors into downloading/installing malware or ones capable of doing so stealthily.
These files can be in various formats, e.g., archives (ZIP, RAR, etc.), executables (.exe, .run, etc.), Microsoft Office and PDF documents, JavaScript, and so on.
When an infectious file is executed, run, or otherwise opened - malware download/installation processes are initiated. For example, Microsoft Office documents infect devices by executing malicious macro commands.
How to avoid installation of malware?
It is crucial to exercise caution with incoming emails, PMs/DMs, SMSes, and other messages. The attachments and links present in suspect/irrelevant mail must not be opened, as they can be malicious and cause system infections. We recommend using Microsoft Office versions released after 2010 since they have the "Protected View" mode that prevents automatic macro execution.
It must be mentioned that malware is not proliferated exclusively through spam mail. Therefore, we advise downloading only from official/trustworthy sources and activating/updating software with genuine tools/functions.
Another recommendation is to be vigilant when browsing since fraudulent and malicious online content typically appears ordinary and innocuous.
We must stress the importance of having a reputable anti-virus installed and updated. Security programs must be used to run regular system scans and remove threats and issues. If you've already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.
Text presented in the "BRITISH CAMELOT ONLINE LOTTERY" spam email letter:
Subject: You have WON!!!
Congratulations!!!
The BRITISH CAMELOT ONLINE LOTTERY in conjunction with UK-EuroMillions-Maker wishes to send you this email again today as a FINAL reminder to claim your lottery Prize. On 18/06/2022 your email address emerged as a Winner of £7,440,150.00 in our Online Computer Ballot Email Lottery Draw with a Draw Number of 2764 and Winning Number 11, 14, 36, 39, 42, 59. You have until 15/12/2022 to claim or the prize will be cancelled.
Your email address was selected as category P7/1 with Winning Number 11, 14, 36, 39, 42, 59 which made you a winner of £7,440,150.00 [Seven Million Four Hundred and Forty Thousand One Hundred and Fifty British Pounds]. All lottery game prizes must be claimed within 180 days after the day of the draw (unless you follow the procedure which allows you to claim within 7 days after the end of the claim period). Any prizes not claimed within the relevant claim period will be forfeited.
We sent the first winning notification email on the 18/06/2022 after the draw confirmation asking you to quickly apply for your claim to your £7,440,150.00 but you did not reply which is the reason we are sending this notification today as a FINAL reminder.
Due to your failure in responding to our email as sent to you on 18/06/2022. Your Lottery Prize Money is now published among other unclaimed Winning Prizes. To view the list of unclaimed prizes that we have not been able to reach the Winners, and also to confirm your Winning Prize Number [11, 14, 36, 39, 42, 59] for a cash payout of £7,440,150.00. Kindly click on the following website or copy the link and paste to your browser: -
To apply for payment, contact our company's payment processing manager Barrister Scott Anthony on following email: r88565@yandex.com
Contact our Lawyer to file for your payment:
Barrister Scott Anthony Esq.
E-mail: r88565@yandex.com
Tel: +44 7700 308 944
Fax: +44 77814 7 0659
Do make sure to email us the following details;
Your first & last names…
Your mobile number……
Your address……………
Your winning number….
Your Age………………..
Sex & Occupation……...
Upon receipt of your details as stated above you will be contacted back within 24hrs by Barrister Scott Anthony and guide you through on how to receive your Winning Prize Money from our bank.
Faithfully,
Dr. Mrs. Chuchan Milito
Chief Operating Officer
@UK-Lottery-2022
Signed by:
Management.
Appearance of the "BRITISH CAMELOT ONLINE LOTTERY" spam email (GIF):
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Quick menu:
- What is "BRITISH CAMELOT ONLINE LOTTERY" phishing email?
- Types of malicious emails.
- How to spot a malicious email?
- What to do if you fell for an email scam?
Types of malicious emails:
Phishing Emails
Most commonly, cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick Internet users into giving away their sensitive private information, for example, login information for various online services, email accounts, or online banking information.
Such attacks are called phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals usually send an email message with some popular service logo (for example, Microsoft, DHL, Amazon, Netflix), create urgency (wrong shipping address, expired password, etc.), and place a link which they hope their potential victims will click on.
After clicking the link presented in such email message, victims are redirected to a fake website that looks identical or extremely similar to the original one. Victims are then asked to enter their password, credit card details, or some other information that gets stolen by cybercriminals.
Emails with Malicious Attachments
Another popular attack vector is email spam with malicious attachments that infect users' computers with malware. Malicious attachments usually carry trojans that are capable of stealing passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.
In such attacks, cybercriminals' main goal is to trick their potential victims into opening an infected email attachment. To achieve this goal, email messages usually talk about recently received invoices, faxes, or voice messages.
If a potential victim falls for the lure and opens the attachment, their computers get infected, and cybercriminals can collect a lot of sensitive information.
While it's a more complicated method to steal personal information (spam filters and antivirus programs usually detect such attempts), if successful, cybercriminals can get a much wider array of data and can collect information for a long period of time.
Sextortion Emails
This is a type of phishing. In this case, users receive an email claiming that a cybercriminal could access the webcam of the potential victim and has a video recording of one's masturbation.
To get rid of the video, victims are asked to pay a ransom (usually using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency). Nevertheless, all of these claims are false - users who receive such emails should ignore and delete them.
How to spot a malicious email?
While cyber criminals try to make their lure emails look trustworthy, here are some things that you should look for when trying to spot a phishing email:
- Check the sender's ("from") email address: Hover your mouse over the "from" address and check if it's legitimate. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft, be sure to check if the email address is @microsoft.com and not something suspicious like @m1crosoft.com, @microsfot.com, @account-security-noreply.com, etc.
- Check for generic greetings: If the greeting in the email is "Dear user", "Dear @youremail.com", "Dear valued customer", this should raise suspiciousness. Most commonly, companies call you by your name. Lack of this information could signal a phishing attempt.
- Check the links in the email: Hover your mouse over the link presented in the email, if the link that appears seems suspicious, don't click it. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft and the link in the email shows that it will go to firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0... you shouldn't trust it. It's best not to click any links in the emails but to visit the company website that sent you the email in the first place.
- Don't blindly trust email attachments: Most commonly, legitimate companies will ask you to log in to their website and to view any documents there; if you received an email with an attachment, it's a good idea to scan it with an antivirus application. Infected email attachments are a common attack vector used by cybercriminals.
To minimise the risk of opening phishing and malicious emails we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
Example of a spam email:
What to do if you fell for an email scam?
- If you clicked on a link in a phishing email and entered your password - be sure to change your password as soon as possible. Usually, cybercriminals collect stolen credentials and then sell them to other groups that use them for malicious purposes. If you change your password in a timely manner, there's a chance that criminals won't have enough time to do any damage.
- If you entered your credit card information - contact your bank as soon as possible and explain the situation. There's a good chance that you will need to cancel your compromised credit card and get a new one.
- If you see any signs of identity theft - you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission. This institution will collect information about your situation and create a personal recovery plan.
- If you opened a malicious attachment - your computer is probably infected, you should scan it with a reputable antivirus application. For this purpose, we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
- Help other Internet users - report phishing emails to Anti-Phishing Working Group, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, National Fraud Information Center and U.S. Department of Justice.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Why did I receive this email?
Cyber criminals distribute spam emails by the thousand; this mail is not personal.
I have provided my personal information when tricked by this spam email, what should I do?
If you have disclosed personally identifiable data (e.g., ID card details, passport scans, etc.) or finance-related information (e.g., credit card numbers, etc.) - immediately contact the relevant authorities. And if you've provided account log-in credentials - change the passwords of all potentially compromised accounts and inform their official support without delay.
I have read a spam email but didn't open the attachment, is my computer infected?
No, just opening/reading an email will not initiate any system infection processes. Malware download/installation is jumpstarted when the attachments or links found in spam mail are opened/clicked.
I have downloaded and opened a file attached to a spam email, is my computer infected?
Whether an infection occurred may depend on the opened file's format. Executables (.exe, .run, etc.) infect systems almost without fail. On the other hand, documents (.doc, .xls, .pdf, etc.) may need additional user interaction (e.g., enabling macro commands) to start downloading/installing malware.
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections present in email attachments?
Yes, Combo Cleaner is designed to detect and eliminate threats. It is capable of removing nearly all known malware infections. Note that performing a full system scan is paramount - since sophisticated malicious programs typically hide deep within systems.
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