The email in this post is not really from Nokia. It is from an anonymous spammer trying to scam people. Nokia presumably has no affiliation with this email or the bogus promotion it describes. All mentions of Nokia in this post are referring to the fake spam version, not the real company that makes phones. Additionally, all names and addresses are presumed to be fictional.
Check out this email spam I just received:
THE NOKIA MOBILE PROMO OFFICIAL/PRIZE AWARD DEPT-NOKIA-WEB AVENUE STAMFORD BRIDGE LONDON, SW1V 3DW UNITED KINGDOM. THE NOKIA SEASON'S LOTTERY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION Congratulations!!! Your email address has just won you the sum of £546,480 000 00 Pound Sterlings (Five Hundred And Fourty Six Thousand Four Hundred And Eighty Pound Sterlings) in the on going Nokia Season's Promotion UK 2009.In line with the commemorating event marking our 14TH anniversary, We rolled out over 75,000.000.00 (Seventy Five Million Great Britain Pounds) for our 14TH Anniversary Draws. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system, drawn from 25,000 company e-mail addresses and 30,000,00 individual e-mail addresses from 45 networks in Australia,New Zealand,North America,South America,Europe,Asia and Africa as part of our International Promotion and prize given Program, which is conducted annually in London,UK. To begin the verification and claims process of your prize,you are required to contact our Claims Department with your winning Ref No. and your personal details, for claims. FILL IN YOUR INFORMATIONS FOR WINNING PROCESSING/VERIFICATION. 1.Complete Names: 2.Age: 3.Address: 4.Occupation: 5.Telephone: 6.Fax: 7.Sex: 8.Marital Status: 9.Company Name/Position: 10.Country: 11:Nationality: 12:Next Of Kin Find Below, Your Winning Ref No.: Find Below, Your Winning Informations: Ref No.: BTD/968/08 Batch No: 409978E Serial No: MSL099876 (CONTACT PROMOTION MANAGER) *************************************** Contact Person: Dr.Bernadette Fallon Tel:+447045700405 Email: info.orchester12@yahoo.com.hk *************************************** This promotion is the 14TH of its kind and we intend to sensitize the public. Best Regards. Mr. Rawlin Collins, Chief Executive Director (Nokia board Online Promo UK)
I mean…seriously? Are there really people out there dumb enough to fall for this shit? And ponder this…if someone actually does fall for this, what are the chances of that person having any possessions, skills, or information that would be of any value to anyone? Seriously, if you’re that fuckin’ retarded, you probably don’t have anything worth stealing or defrauding. In fact, I’m guessing the only people stupid enough to think this email is legitimate are ones that are too stupid to operate a personal computer or access an email account in the first place. This spammer’s target audience isn’t online; they’re watching cartoons in like…special, government-funded facilities or something. Spammer, your marketing skills are piss-poor, and you get an F on this assignment.
Spam Email Highlights
The contact information…
THE NOKIA MOBILE PROMO OFFICIAL/PRIZE AWARD DEPT-NOKIA-WEB AVENUE STAMFORD BRIDGE LONDON, SW1V 3DW UNITED KINGDOM. THE NOKIA SEASON'S LOTTERY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
This is probably the first 6-line address I’ve ever seen. Can I throw my life savings into a box and just mail it to this address? I can’t even tell WTF I’m looking at. Does Nokia really have a Mobile Promo Official/Prize Award Department, or perhaps the company is located on the exclusive Department Nokia Web Avenue?
The conversion rate…
Your email address has just won you the sum of £546,480 000 00 Pound Sterlings (Five Hundred And Fourty Six Thousand Four Hundred And Eighty Pound Sterlings) in the on going Nokia Season's Promotion UK 2009.
Um…what did you do with my other 3 zeros?
The geography…
All participants were selected through a computer ballot system, drawn from 25,000 company e-mail addresses and 30,000,00 individual e-mail addresses from 45 networks in Australia,New Zealand,North America,South America,Europe,Asia and Africa as part of our International Promotion and prize given Program, which is conducted annually in London,UK.
Antarctica arrived late to the Continents Meeting…only to find that New Zealand had swiped his seat.
The redundancy…
Find Below, Your Winning Ref No.: Find Below, Your Winning Informations: Ref No.: BTD/968/08 Batch No: 409978E Serial No: MSL099876
The first redundancy is obvious, but there’s also this to consider: If they only selected 25,000 company e-mail addresses and 30,000,00 individual e-mail addresses for this drawing, then they would need at most (assuming Mr. Spammer lost a zero) 30,025,000 unique combinations of IDs to assign. A simple 8-digit number would suffice. Why then would Nokia assign each entrant 3 different ID numbers of 6-8 alphanumeric characters each? You could assign a unique ID to every atom in the Universe with a system like that.
The wording…
This promotion is the 14TH of its kind and we intend to sensitize the public. Best Regards. Mr. Rawlin Collins, Chief Executive Director (Nokia board Online Promo UK)
Mmm…the thought of Rawlin Collins sensitizing me just makes me so horny. I’m sorry to kick you out, imaginary readers, but I need some privacy. Everybody out! No no, not you, Rawlin…you stay.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting post, still don’t know why they don’t make the extra effort to get the details right if they are going to scam people…
The london address is Churchhill Gardens, Pimlico so atleast they picked a nice place to meet and mug you….
What´s this? Blogging! Sending the “old pages” back into obscurity! I almost had to rewrite the url since I thought I was on the wrong site! I will follow with interest. To comment on the Nokia-spam: Maybe they are Chelsea-fans, since they are located at Stamford Bridge (Chelsea FC home arena), trying to find new ways of pulling in more money for the club.
Whoah…I have real readers? I’m like…famous or something.
I also received that kind of information by message on mobile. Please tel me how much is it true.
I would say it is 100% fake.
When in doubt, search Google for the names, address, or phone numbers from the message. In this example, none of the information returns a legitimate business, and it has no apparent connection to Nokia. Plus, you can usually find anti-fraud websites where people have already exposed the scam.
Also use common sense. Ask yourself:
1. Why would Nokia have a promotion where they give away money and get nothing in return? Companies don’t give away money for no reason; they give it away when the exposure and the increase in sales will be worth more than the prize.
2. Nokia is a multi-billion dollar company, so don’t you think they would have their own email servers? There’s no reason for a big company to use a free web-based email address like nokiaagent50@yahoo.com.
Does the nokia has mobile promo. I have got a e-male that my mobile no 9861345550 has got a winning prize of 500.000 paunds in mobile promo 2009. ihave been instructed to contact scotish citylink company ltd to avil the prize amount. Johnthan the citylink agent told me to deposit rs. 20.000 for postal charge. Please ensure me that the information is true.
Akshaya Kumar Panda
^heh
in your post you mentioned only mentally retarded people fall for these but you gotta remember there is a sucker born every minute. with email spam the response rate doesn’t really matter because they are mailing out millions of emails a day.
also i find it pretty funny you have a seo blog but deny your readers an outgoing link
I don’t understand why that’s funny. If I’m trying to teach people about SEO, why would I set a poor example by indiscriminately linking to everyone who comments?
If there’s one thing I enjoy…it’s discriminating people. For more information, I encourage you to read my discrimination policy.
I Receive a message.
Congratulations!!! Your number has won 350.000 pounds. in the Ongoing UK NOKIA PRomo.
Hi! I am from Azerbaijan! Nokia lottery message has come to my telephone my. They say for me that you earned (the) 2.500.000 euro sum. We send (the) 890euro sum (the) sum that/where you earned (to) you in (on) way to us to (the) nokia firm. I ask you that you should write answer for me in this right (justice, fee)
Dear All
To day on 2nd February ,2010 i received email from : T_WORLD / NOKIA PROMO. send by Mr.Smith Owen. he is T World Nokia Payment Cash Officer saying that i have won GBP 5500000 and the representative will delevered the cheque to me and he will contect me on comeing to the country. He will be required to pay costume and other legal dues amounting to GBP 258. which he said amounted to Rupees 19500/- (nearly)
do you think is it wourth it? from Ahmedabad India.
G.S.Divatia.