V-Flyer

Guess this makes up for all the MS software I have purchased over the years.....Well ok installed.... Oh and the little fight I had with them today...and the fight I had with Dell, thank Neil there is at least 2 people at MS with brains.

Anyways I was more than happy to get this e-mail

OFFICIAL WINNING NOTIFICATION:

DEAR WINNER

It is obvious that this notification will come to you as a surprise(YEP) but please find time to read it carefully as we congratulate you over your success in the following official publication of results of the E-mail electronic online Sweepstakes organized by Microsoft, in conjunction with the foundation for the promotion of software products, (F.P.S.)(no such thing) held on the 5th of January 2009, in United kingdom.

Wherein your electronic email address ( Rather than no electroic email) emerged as one of the online
winning emails in the 2nd category and therefore attracted a cash award of GBP1,000,000.00 (One Million Great British Pounds Only)( Yay me) which your file falls in our South African Claim office in Johannesburg (Huh)

Our winners are arranged into four categories with different winning prizes accordingly in each category. They are arranged in this format below:

CATEGORY NO.OF WINNERS WINNING PRIZES
2nd. 2 GBP1,000,000.00 each
3rd. 8 GBP800,000.00 each
4th. 13 GBP470,000.00 each
5th. 27 GBP170,000.00 each

We write to officially notify you of this award and to advise you to contact the processing office immediately upon receipt of this message for more information concerning the verification, processing and eventual payment of the above prize to you.

It is important to note that your award information was released with the following particulars attached to it.
(1) Award numbers: NL 62/7811
(2) Email ticket numbers: NL901/33/65
(3) Batch numbers: MC44/707/3PDH /EU
(4) The file reference numbers: HL/8121/31/11/MICS
{5} Serial Numbers:McST/030/NL0981

For verification purpose be sure to include:
(1) Your mailing address.
(2) Your Tel/Fax numbers.
(3) Your Nationality/Country.
{4}Your Full Names

To file for your claim, Please contact your Validating Officer for VALIDATION of your winning within Twenty-nine working days of this winning notification.

Winnings that are not validated within Twenty-nine working days of winning notification are termed void and invalid. You are required to mention the above particulars
of your award in every correspondence to enable the Agent in South Africa validate your winning
CONTACT:
*******************************************************************
FOREIGN TRANSFER MANAGER
NAME MR.GREGORY JUDE OMAR
MICROSOFT SECURITY DEPARTMENT(RSA)
TEL:+27 733030322
E-mail:[email protected]
********************************************************************
The Microsoft Internet E-mail lottery Awards is sponsored by our
CEO/Chairman, Bill Gates: and a consortium of software promotion companies. The Intel Group, Toshiba, Dell Computers and other International Companies. The Microsoft internet E-mail draw is held periodically and is organized to encourage the use of the Internet and promote computer literacy worldwide.

Once again on behalf of all our staff,

CONGRATULATIONS!

Yours faithfully,

Dr.Alan Hose
MICROSOFT E-MAIL LOTTERY PROMOTION COORDINATOR.


It was of course at this point that I figured that MS was not actually being nice and give me a cool million [:#]

Ok so we off course know this is total BS, there isn't a whole lot we can do about it...or is there [?]

Well yes there kind of is, just as a little public service I would like to point you at a website, it is http://www.aa419.org/

Take a look, there are a couple of nifty little tools that can help fight these a'holes and also cost them some $$$ as well.

I find it most annoying when I get an email telling me I have won 1 million pounds in a competition I never entered only to find out it is a scam. It is even more frustrating that I find out it is a scam after I have sent them the 15,000 they asked me for to enable them to be able transfer the money in to my account, especially as I could just do with a million pounds right about now [ii][V]

Neil

I must get a dozen emails a week from UK banks asking me to confirm my details on line. What the dozy twonks don't realise is that in the UK we spell many words differently to our US cousins such as organisation (note the missing z) so their scams are often not hard to spot.

I have thought about setting up a few spoof email addresses and responding with some made up details to get a bit of pay back but not got around to it yet.

Miopyk[8D]

If you aren't lucky enough to win the Microsoft lottery, I have a number of Nigerian friends who are looking to share large amounts of inherited funds, all you have to do is send them a few thousand pounds to allow them to claim it?

quote:Originally posted by miopyk
I must get a dozen emails a week from UK banks asking me to confirm my details on line. What the dozy twonks don't realise is that in the UK we spell many words differently to our US cousins such as organisation (note the missing z) so their scams are often not hard to spot.

I have thought about setting up a few spoof email addresses and responding with some made up details to get a bit of pay back but not got around to it yet.


Is it the 'Dear Account Holder!' that gives it away ? The neutral name ? The fact that the exclamation mark is just so....not right? The fact that I don't have an account with that bank ?

Was it Danny Wallace who did a piece in one of his books (possibly The Yes Man) about agreeing to follow through with one of the Nigerian scams?

Paul