Of course it’s untrue and it’s probably not really from the UK either. Phishing scams like this originate mostly from Nigeria for some reason. It has become almost a joke.

They will ask you to send money to cover administrative expenses and then will ask for banking information, so they can start taking money directly out of your account without your knowledge.

What makes you think the mail actually comes from the U.K., just because the message says you won a lottery in the U.K.?
First of all, why do you even open spam email? This only incites the spammers to send you more of the same.

Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL have all sued spammers in the last year. Yahoo’s lawsuit names a Canadian-based firm – and operators Eric Head, Matthew Head and Barry Head – it claims is responsible for millions of spam e-mail messages to Yahoo users regarding eBay and PayPal as well as other scams.

The Worst Spam Emitters – per capita
March 12, 2008 – 5:16PM
Some small South Pacific territories emit more computer spam per capita than anywhere else in the world, a study by a technology company has found.
Although the United States relayed about 21.3 per cent of computer spam, far more than any other country, the Sophos IT company decided to rank nations’ spam emitted per head of population during the last quarter of 2007.
Spam is unsolicited junk email messages. The phenomenon has become a worldwide annoyance that can swamp inboxes and slow down computer systems.
The firm did not look at where the spam originates, but which countries relay the messages, which can occur when computers are taken over by remote hackers.
The United Kingdom territory of the Pitcairn Islands, home to only about 50 people, emitted more spam per capita than any other nation or territory.
The New Zealand territories of Niue and Tokelau, both with populations of about 1500, were the second and third worst offenders respectively.
Other places listed in the 10 biggest emitters of spam per head of population were Anguilla, the Faroe Islands, Monaco, Bermuda, Falkland Islands, Andorra and Aruba.
“Most of the countries in this chart have very small populations compared to the usual offenders, but their totals are sky high when it comes to spam emitted on a per-person basis,” a statement from Sophos said.
“Just because your PC is located on a remote island in the South Pacific doesn’t mean it’s not contributing to the global spam problem.
“All computer users, wherever they are in the world, need to wake up to the threats and ensure their PCs are properly protected,” it said.
Australia, listed as the 33rd worst country in the world in terms of the amount of spam relayed, falls to 85th on the list when considered on a per capita basis.

It’s a scam to take money from your account. I received one that said, Yahoo had something like that. Untrue!