A fake email apparently sent form Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook is being spread across the users’ inbox. The scam email claims that the user has won a lottery of $1 million in our 2011 Sweepstakes (Facebook Inc).

The emails are not genuine and are not sent by any authorized person from Facebook. The link provided in the email directs you to a bogus webpage. The possibility is that the webpage would automatically download malware programs on your computer and gain access to all your personal and confidential information.

The following is the email that is being sent -

“…your details (e-mail address) falls within our European representative office in Amsterdam, Holland, as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of US$1,000000 will be released to you from this regional branch office in England. For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you … ANY BREACH OF CONFIDENTIALITY ON THE PART OF THE WINNERS WILL RESULT TO DISQUALIFICATION.

Similarly, another email message reported by Graham Cluley from Sophos indicates that you have won a Facebook lottery and in order to claim it, you will need to send a total fee of £385 ($614.50) British Pounds as courier charges.

The email also contains phone number which can be used for inquiry. Cluley identified that the mentioned phone number is registered with a British firm called Cloud9, which offers international mobile service. If in case you even call that number, you will be asked to share your personal information and even end up paying a fee. This is a fake messsage and DO NOT pay any amount or share your details.

Scam emails like this are nothing new to Facebook users. We have warned users with several scams and fake emails being sent. Scammers create messages like this to gain access to the users’ financial details, especially when during tough economic times since people are more tempted with offers and giveaways.

With over 800 million users on Facebook, the social networking giant has always been a main target for spreading scams. It is quite difficult to identify scams on Facebook. Here is a post on How to Identify and Avoid Facebook Scams. As a precautionary measure, always check which applications you use and remove unwanted or suspicious ones. If you aren’t sure how to do it, you can always check our guide on  removing apps from Facebook. In addition to that, don’t forget to check out our article about  Avoiding Facebook Lifejacking and Clickjacking scams.

Bookmark  Techie Buzz Facebook Scams. We always keep you updated with the  latest scams spreading on Facebook.