One thing I wanted to talk about today, is Lottery Scams. I guess they are the most popular scams ever. If you think about it, every person on the planet, at least once in their lives, must have entertrained the thought of winning the lottery, and small cost of playing(hey! it's just one buck!) allows for just more reason to fall for such scams. Those people know that if you're going to lose playing lottery, you might as well lose big. In a sales manual, this tactic is called to "upsell". When you are already reaching for your "magic card", the eye involuntarily begins to wonder, what else can you get while you're at it.
Now, we are not children. We know, when we see the obvious "You've won! Claim your prize before it expires! We've been trying to reach you..." to quickly hit that "Delete" button. You know because you haven't even bought any tickets. You know because logically, the only people trying to reach you might be good for nothing creditors and telemarketers...(and maybe your ex.) But what about not-so-obvious, like an invitation to subscribe to a syndicate with an amazing record for picking the winning numbers. One great site to check out some incredible scenarios, which inevitably reminded me of South African emails,
http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/Telemarketing/Outbound/Major/lotteries.htm talks about such scams. Exploiting old-as-the-world idea of making you think as if you were the one taking advantage of the person "in need", why, even the French Rockefeller have successfully fooled celebrities and all the high society with it. It's as if They are doing a favor to you. They seriously, don't even need it. They were just going about their successful business when you(poor soul) happened along and they happened to like you. It's that simple.(Not!)
I personally don't get syndicates, especially Internet based. So how do you know if the person buying tickets is actually buying those tickets and not mail ordering sex toys? (Oops! Am I allowed to say that on a blog?) And again, if it's Internet based, we might not realize where the person is actually located. They may not be in Kansas anymore! The registrar of the site may use a legitimate address in U.S, and in real life be a third world country citizen with a computer access. And, last, even if they did buy the tickets, my question is how are the numbers picked, and how can I legitimately check of they came up? Asking questions puts you in control of your DESTINY.
Another trap for a "regular lotto guy" is a so called "system". There are systems, know-hows in PDF format, and software you think YOU need. Think about it. They don't need it, they were just going about their usual business, profiting from their proven piece of knowledge in this uncomplicated format, when you happened along, (poor soul!), but they really do like you... So here you go -- you might as well take advantage of this limited offer, which expires in...tick-tick..., because it's so, you know, valuable, that they're practically giving it away. Sound familiar? You see, you don't know what you're doing, but they seem to have a plan. A plan to profit from YOU, sucker!
Please, do me a favor! In this case, hit your mental "Delete" button, and get over yourself! Yes, in a Lotto world we are practically swimming though scam, that's why it should be a world with a big neon sign: "EXCERCISE CAUTION! Sharks around!"
