need help regarding email I got

[sojourner]

claiming I've "won" a lottery conducted by a group called STANDARD TRUST WINNINGS, also STANDARD TRUST GROUP INTERNATIONAL. Neither group comes up in a google search.

They claim I won the money in a drawing on July 1 this year. I deleted an earlier email from them without reading it (figuring a sales job or a scam) so that could be the first email they sent. This new one claims it was second attempt to contact me...(which jives with the fact of the earlier deleted email)...and I only accidentally saw the contents before hitting the delete button; and then retrieved it to read entire contents.

I don't want to be duped here. They want me to either provide bank info for a telegraphic money transfer, or to travel there to pick up the funds. No way I'm giving out bank info to anyone I'm not 100% sure of. Travel there? They say travel will be deducted from winnings - which are supposedly 1.5 million euro.

How can I check this place out? The phone number is virtually worthless to me because of the time zone difference. I tried calling today at 7:50 am and turned out I was calling after business hours. Strangely enough the correspondent DOES answer emails....hmmmmm.....I feel like an idiot but then again, I want to be sure what this is before I dismiss it completely.

ANYONE know who, where, how to find out about the legitimacy of this thing? If it's a scam I also want to report it to prevent others from getting burned.

Thanks for any help!!!

[RebelOne]

1. It's a scam. Delete it.

I get at least one of those per week.

Go to www.419eater.com to learn more about these lottery scams.

[sojourner]

8. thanks - I also googled "international lottery" and I'm getting

much good information there as well...will check your link too. Thanks!

[RebelOne]

15. Also check out this article that I posted today.

Internet cafes in Lagos warn Nigerians about sending fraudulent e-mail.

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Day in, day out, a strapping, amiable 24-year-old who calls himself Kele B. heads to an Internet cafe, hunkers down at a computer and casts his net upon the cyber-waters.
Blithely oblivious to signs on the walls and desks warning of the penalties for Internet fraud, he has sent out tens of thousands of e-mails telling recipients they have won about $6.4 million in a bogus British government "Internet lottery."
"Congratulation! You Are Our Lucky Winner!" it says.
So far, Kele says, he has had only one response. But he claims it paid off handsomely. An American took the bait, he says, and coughed up "fees" and "taxes" of more than $5,000, never to hear from Kele again.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/08/08/nigeria.sca...

[sojourner]

17. Thanks again!

[wryter2000]

2. It's a scam

Did you enter a lottery? If you don't recognize the lottery, you didn't win it.

[sojourner]

9. yeah...I figured as much, but wanted to be sure before turning them in and

blocking them.

[MissB]

3. If you've never entered the lottery

then it is definitely a scam. It smells like a scam.

If they are asking you for information about your bank account, or want you to pony up some money, then those are two big red flags.

Go with your gut.

[NYCGirl]

4. Did you play a lottery? If not, it's a SCAM. NT

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Scam to try to get your info

give nothing, report to yiour ISP, bllock them

[hobbit709]

6. SCAM!!!!!

you get a email out of the blue wanting your bank account number?
This is as real as the Nigerian scams.

[RebelOne]

11. And the e-mail probably originated in Nigeria. n/t

[whistle]

7. Big scam, do not respond, do not send money....you will be

...taken to the cleaners.

[sojourner]

13. Yeah...they must be onto that angle as they claim it costs me nothing to

claim my $$. But I think that may change as the thing unwinds to reveal what it really is.

[whistle]

21. Well, sounds like you might want to hear more, be very careful....

[flyingfysh]

10. they want your bank account number

because that is all they need to empty your bank account.

[sojourner]

14. Right on. 'Course the joke's on them in that case since I got about $5!!!

[NoPasaran]

12. Their goal is to either clean out your bank account

Or harvest your organs for resale if you travel to meet them.

[sojourner]

16. OH SCARY THOUGHT!!!

The bank account I didn't figure to be a problem as I'm not giving them that info. But the consequences of traveling to meet them...well, all I can say is YIKES!

[RebelOne]

20. They will also kidnap people that travel to

Nigeria and demand ransom. It has happened to quite a few gullible people. Sometimes they are never found.

[smartvoter]

18. These are always scams. Never respond to an inquiry for your

data, even if it looks like it's from your own bank, or eBay, or Paypal or any of them. They're always fakes...

[NewWaveChick1981]

19. Total scam

There are lots of others like this too. Delete, delete, delete!!!

Glad you checked before you got taken! :)

[applegrove]

22. Nobody gives you anything for free. Unless you signed up for the contest.

They either want to lure you to a 'meeting' where they will try and sell you a timeshare or they want your banking information. Whatever you 'won' is just the first step in manipulating you. You will want that thing & think about it and are primed for then 'buying' whatever they are 'selling'.