From: "opengatelotto" <opengatelotto9@netscape.net>
Sent: February 4, 2005
Subject: You're A Winner!!

FROM: PROMOTIONS DEPARTMENT,
OPENGATE LOTTERIES INTERNATIONAL
Ref. No.- OGLI/682/029/04

Attention: Sir/Madam,

Opengate Lotteries International has just concluded its final draws of it's periodical promotional program.An exclusive list of email addresses of thousands of individual and corporate bodies were picked by automated random computer search from the internet with special concentration on individuals and companies involved in SMALL BUSINESSES. No tickets were sold. Your email address emerged as one of five winners in the "A CATEGORY" as email addresses were soughted, from a total number of 75,000 addresses drawn from all over the globe. After an automated computer ballot of our International Promotions Program, only FIVE winners emerged in this category and therefore each are to receive payouts of 3,500,000 EUROS from the total of 17,500,000 EUROS (SEVENTEEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND EUROS).

However,every email address selected was accompanied by a reference and ticket number,after the cyber lotto selection,the below ticket and reference numbers emereged as one of the lucky winners in the above category. CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Details of your winnings are below:

REF NUMBERS: OGLI/682/029/04
TICKET NUMBERS: 148270092718-427
SERIAL NUMBERS: 683-7714
BATCH NUMBERS: OGLI-0670-SZ02-04
LUCKY NUMBERS: 21-14-6-2-8-49

For confirmation of the claim of your prize money, you are to send an email with the following information:

YOUR CONTACT TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBERS
YOUR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE

to our customer service representative with informations below for further instructions on how you can claim your prize:

NAME:DAVID BROWN
EMAIL: opengatelotto9@netscape.net

We congratulate you once again and it is our hope that you participate in any of our international programs in the nearest future.

Thank you and CONGRATULATIONS!!!.

Sincerely,

Margareth Woodluck,
Promotions Manager

I write to David Brown to claim my price, but get no answer. 2 days later I write to Margareth, but she doesn't answer either.

3 weeks later I receive the following email. Let me call the sender Mr. Green:

Hello Ive read your coments online about internet scammers and I think ive come across one of them called, "OPENGATELOTTO" It is urgent that you respond as soon as possible. Opengatelotto is asking for the fee of 950 Euros for the transfer of the money. To me that is a little skeptical and if they were the people that were sending me the money then why dont they just pull it out of my winnings. I requested for my agent Dr. Alex Hilford to send the the emails of the other winners and he did. The prize money is also coming from Madrid, Spain if that means anything.

If you could please contact me as soon as possible that would be great because you or me would not want to sit on something of this magnitude, like 4 and a half million dollars LOL. One more thing did you ever win the money from the email that you recieved. The reason being is because the tracking, batch, and lucky numbers are all the same as mine, as the email that I have also recieved and saved. I have also kept all of the emails that they have ever sent me too. If this is not a scam I have till the 2nd of March to send in this transaction fee of 950 Euros [$742] or the 3,500,000 Euros [$4,515,000+] will be considered not claimed.

Thanks,
Mr Green

Hi Mr Green,
Do not doubt that this is a scam. Why should you win in a lottery you never participated in? Why is their email to you identical to the one I received? Real lotteries don't ask you to pay fees, they pay you the money you won (after deducting taxes etc). This link tells more about this kind of fraud: http://www.419legal.org/pages.php?p=11

If you would like to have your emails published on my website in order to warn others, then fell free to forward them to me. I will change your name etc to secure your anonymity.

Regards, ...

Mr Green forwards his emails to me. The opening letter is almost identical to the one I received. I have highlighted the differences:

From: "OPENGATE LOTTERIES INTERNATIONAL" <opengatelotto2@netscape.net>
Sent: February 2, 2005
Subject: RESULT AND CONGRATULATIONS!!!

FROM: PROMOTIONS DEPARTMENT,
OPENGATE LOTTERIES INTERNATIONAL
Ref. No.- OGLI/682/029/04

Attention: Sir/Madam,

Opengate Lotteries International has just concluded its final draws of it's periodical promotional program.An exclusive list of email addresses of thousands of individual and corporate bodies were picked by automated random computer search from the internet with special concentration on individuals and companies involved in SMALL BUSINESSES. No tickets were sold. Your email address emerged as one of five winners in the "A CATEGORY" as email addresses were soughted, from a total number of 75,000 addresses drawn from all over the globe. After an automated computer ballot of our International Promotions Program, only FIVE winners emerged in this category and therefore each are to receive payouts of 3,500,000 EUROS from the total of 17,500,000 EUROS (SEVENTEEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND EUROS).

However,every email address selected was accompanied by a reference and ticket number,after the cyber lotto selection,the below ticket and reference numbers emereged as one of the lucky winners in the above category. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Details of your winnings are below:

REF NUMBERS: OGLI/682/029/04
TICKET NUMBERS: 148270092718-427
SERIAL NUMBERS: 683-7714
BATCH NUMBERS: OGLI-0670-SZ02-04
LUCKY NUMBERS: 21-14-6-2-8-49

For confirmation of the claim of your prize money, you are to send an email with the following information:

YOUR CONTACT TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBERS YOUR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE

to our customer service representative with informations below for further instructions on how you can claim your prize:

NAME:DAVID BROWN
EMAIL: opengatelotto1@netscape.net We congratulate you once again and it is our hope that you participate in any of our international programs in the nearest future.

Thank you and CONGRATULATIONS!!!.

Sincerely,
Margareth Woodluck,
Promotions Manager

From: opengatelotto1@netscape.net
Sent: February 7, 2005
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!

Dear Mr Green,

As reflected in our first mail to you, the notification was to inform you that you have been selected among lucky winners for a prize money of 3,500,000.00 euros (Three million, five hundred thousand euros only), as the name implies, this is a real OPENGATE to a successful and fulfilled life. This lottery program has been on-line for so many years till date.

A lot of people have also benefited from it, with winnings ranging from $5,000, $100,000 and more. This year`s program has been designed to give out lump sums to fewer individuals and corporate winners.

To file for your claim, you are requested to send us the following information:

YOUR FULL NAMES
YEAR OF BIRTH
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
OCCUPATION
SEX

Once these are received, we shall refer you to our claims agent who will process your claims so that your funds can be released to you.

We hope that you will have the heart to donate part of this proceeds to Charity.

Best Regards and CONGRATULATIONS!!
David Brown

From: opengatelotto1@netscape.net
Sent: February 8, 2005
Subject: Contact Agent.

Dear Mr Green,

We have forward your prize claim certificate and insurance certificate to our agent, with which your prize money was insured. Below is the contact details of our claims agent:

OPTIMUM CONSULT, SPAIN
CONTACT PERSON: ALEX HILFORD (DR)
PHONE: +34-667-852-817
FAX: +34-912-725-059
EMAIL: optimumconsult2@consultant.com

You are adviced to contact him as soon as possible with the tracking number on your prize claim certificate to enable him begin the immediate processing of your claims.

You may further confirm your winnings via our website: www.opengatelotto.gq.nu

Best Regards
David Brown

This email was quite interesting. I have met Alex Hilford 4 months earlier in the Cyril Fuddey story. The phone- and faxnumbers are identical, but in that story he was a security company called HARBOUR DIPLOMATIC SECURITIES.

The homepage shows some pictures of "Previous winners". They have probably won in other lotteries. The name "Opengate Lotteries" is not visible in any of the pictures.

From: optimumconsult consult <optimumconsult2@consultant.com>
Sent: February 11, 2005
Subject: Fw: PROCESSING FORM

ATTN: Mr Green,

Sir,

Re: Processing of Claims Kindly find attached to this email, the processing form for your prize claim. You will be required to properly fill the form and return to us as soon as possible to enable us begin the processing of your claims and effect transfer. Note also that you will be required to make a payment of 950Euros (Nine hundred and fifty euros) only, being processing, legalization and notorization fee. You may send this fee via Western Union Money Transfer through the name of our receiving officer as follows:

NAME SURNAME
MARCEL OBASI
PLACE: SPAIN

Kindly fax us the western union receipt to: +34-912-725-059 as soon as you send the fee to enable us start processing of your claims.

Note that it shall take twenty four hours to process your claims, legalize and notorize documents in your payment file, after which we shall effect transfer of your prize money accordingly.

Thank you
Alex Hilford (Dr)
For: Optimum Consult

At this point Mr Green was wise enough to stop.

I have also won in other lotteries earlier. Read about my prices in the Miracle Mountain International Email Lottery and the Lottery Winners International.