How to identify scam emails like the fake "Budweiser Lottery" letter
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on (updated)
What is the fake "Budweiser Lottery" email?
In our examination of the email, we determined it to be a fraudulent message about a supposed prize win. It is crafted to deceive recipients into thinking they have won a large amount of money. The scammers' objective is to extract personal information and/or money from the recipients. Thus, this email should be ignored.
More about the "Budweiser Lottery" scam email
The scam email claims to be from Budweiser Lottery. It notifies the recipient that they have won £450,000 in a lottery and provides a series of numbers (e.g., identification, batch, serial numbers) related to the supposed win.
The email explains that winners were randomly selected from valid email addresses linked to a global promotion. It encourages the recipient to contact an agent (supposedly Dr. Nelson Orsmond) via provided email addresses or a phone number to claim their prize. The email also requests personal information, such as full name, age, and contact details, to facilitate the release of the funds.
Overall, the email is designed to deceive the recipient into believing they have won a large sum of money so that scammers could extract personal information and (or) steal funds by claiming that recipients have to pay some "administration" or other fees. Recipients should ignore such emails to avoid monetary loss, identity theft, or other issues.
| Name | Budweiser Lottery Email Scam |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Fake Claim | The recipient has won £450,000.00 |
| Disguise | Letter from the Budweiser Lottery |
| 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. |
Similar scam emails in general
Scam emails that promise large prizes are often designed to deceive recipients into providing personal information or money. It is important to remain skeptical of unsolicited messages claiming winnings and to verify their legitimacy before taking any action. Some examples of similar scams are "World Bank Group - Overdue Payment", "Donation To Charity Through You", and "Unclaimed Insurance".
It is important to mention that deceptive emails can also be used to distribute malicious software.
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Cybercriminals spread malware through email by including infected attachments or malicious links. When users open these attachments, like documents, scripts, or executable files, malware can enter their systems, though some types require further action from the user to activate.
For example, malware in Microsoft Office files will only run if the user enables macros (editing/content). Clicking links in these emails can take users to fake websites that either ask them to download malware or automatically download it without their consent.
How to avoid installation of malware?
Be cautious of ads, pop-ups, and other content on untrustworthy sites. Always download programs and files from official websites or app stores, and steer clear of pirated software or tools that are supposed to bypass software activation. Avoid opening links and attachments in suspicious emails, especially if they come from unknown senders.
Regularly update the operating system and installed software, and run system scans using a reputable anti-malware tool. If you have already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.
The appearance of the fake "Budweiser Lottery" email (GIF):
Text presented in the "Budweiser Lottery" email letter:
Budweiser
Congratulations!!
ATN: Winner
Find The Attached
Reply-to-Email: clientcareclaimofficeinfo@aol.com
nelorsmonddr@hotmail.comThank You
Budweiser
Promo United Kingdom
Online 2024
Budweiser National Lottery Company
P.O. Box 101
(Customer Service) NOTIFICATION DESKAttention: Email Account Holder,
Dear Email User
We are pleased to announce that you have been awarded the prize of FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND GREAT BRITISH POUNDS (GBP450,000.00) in the 14th Category 2024 prize promotion held by the Budweiser Lottery International Promotion Award. The draw (#1000) took place in London, United Kingdom, on November 01st, 2024. Your active email address has been linked to the computer-generated ticket number, signifying your achievement in this prestigious event. Congratulations on your remarkable success.
The promotion was conducted using email addresses as the primary identifier for establishing online accounts. All valid email addresses present on the World Wide Web were randomly selected for an online G-emails promotion via computer balloting. This initiative was part of Global Website Collaboration with prominent internet companies such as LinkedIn, Microsoft, Yahoo, Gmail, Domain, eBay, PayPal, Liberty Reserve, and Google. These companies relied on email addresses for membership registration identity. The computer draw system retrieved email addresses from an extensive database, encompassing over 100,000 unions, associates, corporate entities, and affiliated members of the Budweiser National Lottery website and its online advertisers. This online promotion occurs bi-annually through virtual ticket balloting.
STATED BELOW ARE YOUR WINNING IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS:
Reference No.: UK/FVV/GFD/00921 Ticket
No.: KTR/1500/BUD
Serial No.: ZA876/7F54BK Bitch
No.: VIC/YTR543UK5DRAW THE WINNING NUMBERS:
The aforementioned numbers are situated within the England Location file. We respectfully request that you establish contact with our fiduciary agent in the United Kingdom and furnish her with your winning identification numbers.
Please Contact Him through This Email:
(Fiduciary Agent Name: Dr Nelson Orsmond):
Email: BudweiserUK@adexec.com
clienteareclaimofficeinfo@aol.com
Tel/Fax +44 77 00 312 906To ensure the expeditious release of your prize money, please furnish the fiduciary agent with the following information at your earliest convenience:
Full name:
Age:
Contact address:
Nationality:
Country:
Winning Identification Numbers:
Tele/fax numbers:
WorkCongratulations once again!!
Yours in service,
Ms. Catherine Bessant
All rights reserved.
Terms of Service Guideline.
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Quick menu:
- What is Budweiser 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?
Scammers send identical emails to thousands of recipients, hoping that someone will be tricked into responding or taking other action (e.g. opening the provided links). Usually, these spam messages are entirely generic.
I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?
If you have provided account credentials to scammers, change the potentially compromised passwords immediately. If you have provided any other personal information (such as credit card or ID details), notify the appropriate authorities without delay.
I have downloaded and opened an infected file attached to an email, is my computer infected?
If the file was an executable (.exe), it likely infected your computer. However, if it was a document (.pdf, .doc, etc.), you might be safe, as simply opening these files often is not enough for malware to infiltrate systems.
I have sent cryptocurrency to the address presented in such email, can I get my money back?
Cryptocurrency transactions are almost impossible to trace, making it unlikely that you will recover any lost funds.
I have read the email but did not open the attachment, is my computer infected?
Simply opening an email is harmless. It is clicking on links or opening attachments within the email that can lead to infections.
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?
Combo Cleaner can detect and remove most known malware infections. However, advanced malware often hides deep within the system, so performing a full system scan might be required to detect and eliminate it.
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