You won $500! Yahoo!® Mail congratulates you!, the subject of an e-mail I have received yesterday said. Attractive subject, isn’t it? Curious about it, I hurriedly open the e-mail, of course with excitement to see the price I have “won”. It’s $500 for God’s sake! Although, I was already suspecting that it was fraud.
The e-mail said that I was one of those “randomly” selected members who won $500. I was one of the 12 top winners accounts who will get cash prizes from them, it says.
Because I have been receiving several chain letters with similar intention (of spreading hoax), I’ve already suspected that it was one of those fraudulent e-mails.
Firstly, if it was true, they would have announced it publicly or news reports should have been made about it. Come on, it’s Yahoo! Mail giving $500 to its users.
Secondly, giving $500 to users is not a Yahoo!-ish thing. What would it be for? As promotion of their e-mail service? I don’t think they need more subscribers when they have already millions or probably billions of users worldwide.
Thirdly, if it was true, how lucky could I get that out of those billion subscribers, I was one of the chosen users. I probably believe in luck but not at time when my chance is very nil.
Fourthly, the e-mail was sent to yahoo.winners@yahoo.com. If it was from Yahoo! it should have sent to my real e-mail address.
Lastly, the e-mail was from admin@mail.yahoo.com. Yeah, sure it sounds authentic because it after all came from an “admin” but I’ve been a user of Yahoo! Mail for years and so far, I have not received any message from the Yahoo! admin. And the domain is not so convincing because Yahoo admin should have used yahoo.com instead of a subdomain (mail.yahoo.com).
To strengthen my suspicion that this is a hoax, I searched the web for more stories related to it. Indeed, it was a phishing activity which intend to collect personal and bank information of users. A user has also asked about it in Yahoo! Answers, confirming if it was true. Apparently more than 12 users, contrary to what have stated in the e-mail, in which there were only 12 lucky winners, have received the said e-mail. This phishing attack was also reported by some Gmail users.
For non-suspecting e-mail recipients, the e-mail might appear genuine. You have to evaluate first the e-mail before succumbing to it right away.
Tags: Chain-E-mails, chain-letters, E-mail-Frauds, Google, Internet, Safety-Tips, Spam, Spam-Filter, Tips
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Mar 20, 2007 at 09:48:41
How come I never got that e-mail? Oh yeah, I’m using Gmail!
Mar 20, 2007 at 19:25:32
congrats! balato!
Mar 20, 2007 at 22:51:18
thyanks for the tip, hirap talaga basta magtiwala sa mga panahon ngayon kailangan i-evaluate mabuti.
Mar 21, 2007 at 08:29:02
@Jhay: I think there was also a similar e-mail received by some Gmail users.
@Alfred: Haha. Wish ko lang totoo yun para meron kang balato.
@Iskoo: Yeah, we have to be vigilant always.