Email Lottery/Gambling Scams
Introduction
You may see many of those emails coming from unknown senders that say “You won a bonus!” “You won $100!” “Claim your free spins now!” etc. These are those annoying email lottery scams that almost everyone gets.
How they get past the spam filter
For a while now I’ve been investigating how emails get past the spam filter. I’ve wrote spam emails to myself to test out the spam filter. The reason that these emails get past the spam filter is that their spam is contained in the images. Since spam filters cannot scan images, they don’t mark the message as spam.
How to deal with these emails
As a baiter, you may report the scammer’s sites to the authorities, Google Safe Browsing, spam DBs, etc. You can’t do much beyond that, unlike 419 emails. If you click on unsubscribe, you will give confirmation to the scammers that the email is valid, and they will send you even more emails. This is good for a baiter; however, if you aren’t a baiter, don’t click on unsubscribe, otherwise you’ll get more spam.
How they get away with it
These types of scams usually ask for payment through Wire Transfer, PayPal, Crypto, etc. Once you pay, you won’t see your money again. Usually they have an offshore bank account for receiving the funds. Or, they might ask you to pay through Western Union, MoneyGram, Ria, or WorldRemit (Money Transfer Services) to a remote Caribbean island to make the payment.
They are lying a lot
These scams always claim “Norton Secure” “McAfee Secure” “256-Bit SSL Secure” “Google Safe Browsing Verified” etc. They will also give a fake company name, physical address, and registration number. They say “virus, adware, and spyware free” but that’s false. A popular scam casino network is casinorewards.com using tracking domain promo.iredirect.net.
They are everywhere
These scams usually spread from spam emails or text messages. They often use URL shorteners to hide the true destination of the link. Always be careful of these sites.