Hello.
I've been sent an SMS saying I've won 1M GBP, and should send an email with my phone number to
myxmas@o2.co.uk.
as you can see - this is an
official O2 domain email address - which is very hard to fake as one would need access to O2's email server, and thus I sent a mail with the phone number alone.
An hour later, got a reply (again from the same address, though it is easier to fake). With a soft-of-official O2 PDF inside. I'll quote a bit from it:
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"We acknowledge the receipt of your mail with regard to the winning notification as earlier
sent to your Mobile. The 2010 O2 Live International Mobile Draw is no doubt, a momentous
achievement in the checkered history of this Corporation.
Your Mobile Telephone Number was selected randomly through our Computer Ballot System
(CBS) from World Mobile Telephone Directories, and you have been awarded
GBP1,000,000.00 (One Million Great Britain Pounds). This promotion is part of the financial
empowerment programme of the O2 Telecommunications Company of United Kingdom in its
desire to reward our numerous customers worldwide.
While basking in the euphoria of this achievement, I wish to seize this opportunity to
acquaint you with guidelines you must follow in order to complete your claims. On our part,
we have a mandate to see you through. We shall work assiduously to realize this mandate
as we respect your views, opinions and most importantly protect your Privacy..." |
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The PDF also contained special unique PIN number which will ID my winning from now on.
The PDF and email is signed as:
"Barrister M. Victor
(Prize Administrator)
Direct Line: +447407281237"
After digging around and also calling O2's press-room, I came to the conclusion this is a hoax (Nigerian fraud).
To test this, I opened a fake new gmail account, and sent this
myxmas@o2.co.uk address a new letter saying I won the prize and thank you and blah blah blah.. and what should I do to get the money, this time I provided no phone number or any other id-ing detail, other than the fake email address and a made-up name.
To my surprise, a few minutes later, I yet again got the same email from the same Barrister M. Victor and
WITH THE SAME PIN NUMBER!!!!
I have no idea how to contact O2 officials and warn them about this possible breach in security - as this fellow is either on their internal network by hacking - or has someone from IT collaborating with him - I see no other reason for him using an official O2 domain address.
What do you think? Could you help me throw a warning to O2's officials? Anyone knows how to contact them to help us all stop this fraud?
J.
