There is no "Instagram Neo Heritage Award Online Promotion" paying thousands or millions of dollars in prizes. Therefore, do not be fooled by lottery scammers who are sending the fake messages to potential victims claiming they are winners in the same lottery, award or promotion. The scammers trick potential victims into sending them their personal information and will subsequently ask them to send money in order to receive their so-called lottery prize.
I have recently been contacted by an Instagram user (charlotterutherford) with a claim that I am allegedly the recipient of a 1 million USD (one of 24 annually selected) as part of the Instagram Neo Heritage Award online promotion.
The user posted photo images of two individuals holding oversized prize checks for the 1 million dollars and these checks bore the official Instagram logo.
The user then proceeded to request the following information from me:
- Name
- Last name
- Country
- Residential address
- Age
- Occupation
- Mobile number
- email address
I know this is a lottery and phishing scam based on readily available online postings warning of such. I provided no personal demographic information and instead requested the user to provide contact information (telephone and email), which were not sent.