Can five million Britians be duped? Yes, according to a study done by the British consumer protection organization Which? [1]. Which? contacted more than 1000 Brits to see how widespread the scam problem is in the U.K. The results?

• More than 28 million of 60 million citizens had been exposed to one or more scams.
• Five million of those 28 fell victim to a scam.
• The most popular scam related to "an automated phone call that invites people to claim a prize. A third of adults have received such a call and two million have responded, usually by calling a premium-rate number, which can cost up to GBP 1.50 ($2.70 U.S.) a minute."

The funny thing is that I've even seen people outside the U.K. fall victim to these international lottery scams. Here's a typical email that arrived in our honeypot [2] inbox this week:

As I was saying, I've received email from U.S. residents wondering if they'd really won after receiving an email like this. They never questioned how they'd won even though they weren't residents of the country where the lottery was held and had never even entered the lottery.

Greed makes us stupid, doesn't it? That's what the scammers count on.

UPDATE!
Many of you have also received snail mail versions of this scam. In this scam you receive a letter saying you've won as well as a check for $3,000 - $4,000 dollars to cover the taxes and processing fees - supposedly.

Anyway, listen up people.

This is a scam. The check is fake.

It may initially be accepted at your bank but will eventually be worth absolutely nothing. So when you deposit it and then send them a check from your account, you will lose money.

Ask yourself... Why would they send you a check and then have you send them a check right back for the same amount? Does that make sense? It does if you're trying to scam someone.