Yahoo files suit against lottery spammers

SUNNYVALE, Calif. Yahoo Inc. has filed a lawsuit against an unknown group of defendants it alleges tricked consumers into thinking they won a lottery or prize offered by the Internet company.

Yahoo filed the lawsuit on May 16 in U.S. District Court in New York City under federal trademark law, federal anti-spam law and other state laws.

In its court filing, Yahoo contends that the defendants masqueraded as the Internet company, sending out e-mails claiming recipients had won prizes ranging from a few thousand to a million dollars and instructing them to click on a link or forward personal information to a "Yahoo lottery coordinator" to get their prize.

At times, recipients were instructed to contact another party to arrange for the prize payment, Yahoo said in the filing, and this other party would charge them "hundreds of dollars in various processing and mailing charges in order to complete the payment process."

Yahoo noted in the filing that it does not offer any such prizes and has no connection with the group or the e-mails it sent.

Such "phishing" scams are meant to trick consumers into sharing financial information.

Although the defendants' identities are unknown, Yahoo thinks that information acquired during a discovery period from third-party e-mail service companies will lead to their identification.

"The unauthorized use of Yahoo's trademarks is misleading, fraudulent, and has actually confused, misled, and deceived the public," said Joe Siino, senior vice president of Yahoo global intellectual property and business strategy, in a statement on Tuesday.

Work-From-Home job turns out to be Scam

An Illinois Woman thought she e found the ideal job. The stay-at-home mother could raise her toddler and bring in an extra income for the family. She only had to receive packages in the mail and would resend them to the man overseas that hired her, After a few weeks, her employer, a man she knew as John Willner, asked her if she wanted to earn more money by receiving money orders and re-mailing them to him. She had no idea that she was now a victim of a scam.
The merchandise in the packages she was sent were bought with stolen credit cards. The money orders were sent by people duped by a Web site created by a fictional seller of small electronics.The packages and money reached addresses in Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Most likely a fake name and fake address as the websites are already down.
She found out only when she was contacted by the authorities regarding stolen credit cards. Luckily she was able to prove that she was a victim of this scam since she truly believed she was being hired by a legitimate company to work from home. She had replied to an ad for a “Work from Home” job from the internet.
This is happening all over and they tend to target stay at home parents. Apparently Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Russia and Canada are among popular locations for scammers to ship goods bought with stolen credit cards.
Scammers know it’s difficult to convince Americans to send money orders to a person in Russia. And they know it’s a red flag for credit card companies if a U.S. cardholder suddenly buys high-end small electronics and ships them to an address in Kyrgyzstan. These particular people had placed their employment ad using the name of a well known parcel company. Remember if it sounds too good to be true it probably is!
//sources:AP, Panagraph