Scam Alert: PowerBall does not have a Facebook lottery.

ATLANTA – December 7, 2015 — Claims of a fictitious Facebook lottery are cropping up once again, replete with the usual bad grammar, punctuation errors, and broken English. This time, users from Marietta and other areas of Cobb and Fulton County are being targeted.

Marietta, GA, residents are being targeted this time.

It appears as if the scam is operating through Facebook Chat, which is fairly smart because there’s no real way (yet) to report scams as such, via Chat or Messenger.

Here are the accounts involved:
1.  “Willam Wade” – https://www.facebook.com/willam.wade.7
2.  “Dennis Ray Bills” – https://www.facebook.com/dennisray.bills

Until Facebook suspends these accounts, the links should work.  If you can, please flag these accounts.  The screen captures below show how this particular scam was started through Facebook’s chat system. At the bottom of this post, you will find three news / gov’t resources on this scam, known as an Advance Fee scam.

FaceBook Lottery1

Introduction to the scam. Screenshot No. 1.

FaceBook Lottery2

Screenshot No. 2 – “the explanation.”

FaceBook Lottery3

And here we go – contact via Chat to another account.

FaceBook Lottery4

Here we see a link to that second account, and more errors.

FaceBook Lottery5

Finally, an admonition to Friend the second account.

FaceBook Lottery9

The “Online manager” – has PowerBall seen this account?

Don’t be fooled by the a Facebook Lottery scam.  It doesn’t exist.

The Better Business Bureau has a post regarding the Facebook Lottery scam:
http://www.bbb.org/blog/2011/12/facebook-lottery-scam/

ABC News reported similar news in 2014: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/texas-woman-scammed-friend-facebook-lottery/story?id=23826990

The FBI has a page for common schemes: https://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/fraud#advfee

Resources archived via PDF print-outs:
1.  BBB Facebook Lottery Scam: Facebook Lottery Scam
2. ABC News – Woman Scammed: Scammed by Facebook Lottery – ABC News d
3. FBI – Common Schemes Page: FBI — Common Fraud Schemes

Help your friends and family avoid scams – share this post!

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About Amy Barnes

Author has extensive experience in Retail, including two years as a supervisor. Educated in Psychology, Financial Accounting, Criminal Justice, and Programming. Work experience in Law Enforcement, Security (IT), Programming (REALBasic, SQL, VB, JAVA), Retail.
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