From Sandra Grauschopf,
Your Guide to Contests & Sweepstakes.
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Heineken Lottery Win - Scam or Real?

I recently received an email saying that I had won a large amount of money from the Heineken Lottery. It seems to be too good to be true, but I checked around and the email is really from a high-ranking Heineken employee. Is this real or a scam?

A.

Don't Fall for the Heineken Lottery Scam

I'm sorry to say that the Heineken Lottery is a scam. Although Heineken may run legitimate sweepstakes as part of its marketing, they do not run lotteries. The company has published a Warning Against the Heineken Lottery Scam on its website. Part of the warning states:

Alleged Heineken lotteries... are wrongfully being promoted or promised under the Heineken name, even with Heineken imagery and logos copied from official websites. In some cases, personal names of Heineken officers, the Heineken logo or other Heineken imagery are even copied and used for these purposes to give the impression that it is genuine.

However, the letter actually originates with a spammer who are trying to either steal money from you directly, or to get enough information to commit identity theft. For more information, see How Sweepstakes Scams Work.

If you have received a Heineken Lottery Scam, do not contact the senders (or if you already have, break off all contact). Instead, report the scam to the proper authorities.