Beware of Microsoft's "Official winnings notification"

[RickQuann]

the gmail account is a nice touch

Microsoft Corporations:
Customer Service
Your Reference No: ESP-L/L-2810
Your Batch No: 2008/101/MIC

OFFICIAL WINNING NOTIFICATION.

We are pleased to inform you of the release of the long awaited results of
Sweepstakes promotion organized by Microsoft, in conjunction with the
foundation for the promotion of software products, (F.P.S.) held this
September 2008, in Spain. Where in your email address emerged as one
of the online Winning emails in the 2nd category and therefore attracted
a cash award of (€475,000.00) FOUR HUNDRED and SEVENTY FIVE
THOUSAND EUROS.

To begin your claim, do file for the release of your winning by contacting
our Foreign Transfer Manager:

Mr. Celino Ramses
Tel:+34 65 2677 942
Fax:+34 65 2677 942
Email: microawarddept@gmail.com

The Microsoft Internet E-mail lottery Awards is sponsored by former 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.

Congratulations!!

Sincerely,
Mr. Ryon Doll
Promotions Manager.

[Giulietta]

Whoooo Hoooo..
Swan ..here I go!!!

[sailingdog]

Umm... why would anyone but an idiot fall for this. Someone from Microsoft would not be using a GMAIL.com e-mail address for anything official, as Google is one of their major competitors.

Unfortunately, there are about a million variants of this floating around, and you'd have to be pretty damn stupid to fall for any of them.

[ckgreenman]

You'd be surprised. NEVER underestimate the naive computer user. There's a reason these kinds of messages keep popping up. BECAUSE THEY WORK.

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Umm... why would anyone but an idiot fall for this. Someone from Microsoft would not be using a GMAIL.com e-mail address for anything official, as Google is one of their major competitors.

Unfortunately, there are about a million variants of this floating around, and you'd have to be pretty damn stupid to fall for any of them.

[sailingdog]

True, no one ever underestimated the stupidity of the general public.... If most computer users had the common sense God gave a single ant...the spammers would stop in a heartbeat.

[CharlieCobra]

My 19 year old Son got a letter containing a check for 4,870.00 for a supposed lottery (Canadian) winning. This GST, which had to be paid prior to disbursement, and was drawn on a Welding Co. out of Pittsburgh on a Canadian bank in Toronto. The agent contact number was in either CT or BC. The check was real, with watermarks etc. but the printing of the name was different. The deal was that the "winner" would cash this check and send the money to the agent to pay the GST. I called the welding co. and spoke with the owner. He asked me what was the number on the check. It turns out that they have had hundreds of calls on this and that it all came from one check stolen from the mail some 6 months ago. The agent's number is a prepaid, therefore untraceable, cell phone. These folks are getting very sophisticated. I shredded the check.

[Sapperwhite]

Look, the Queen of Tonga

OFFICIAL WINNING NOTIFICATION:

DEAR WINNER:

It is obvious that this notification will come to you as a suprise but please 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.), held on the 16th of march 2007,in Amsterdam The Netherlands.

Wherein your electronic email address emerged as one of the online winning emails in the 3rd category and therefore attracted a cash award of 470,000.00Euros(Four hundred and seventy thousand Euros only).

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
1st. 2 1,000,000:00euros each
2ND. 8 750,000:00euros each
3rd. 13 470,000:00euros each
4Th. 27 170,000:00euros 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.

Microsoft Winning Numbers Award Numbers: NL 5 6 7 7 6 5 Email Ticket Numbers: NL 5 5 3 2 6 96 Batch Numbers: MC 11 8 3 4 5 PDH/EU File Reference Number: HL 55 64 06 0 7 MICS Serial Numbers McST 0 0 7 NL 46 57


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


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 validate your winning. CONTACT:

PROCESSING OFFICER (Mr Mark Robert )
MICROSOFT CLAIMS OFFICE(NL).
TEL:+31-614-997-934.
FAX:+31-847-259-625
E-mail: processingoffice@searchmachine.com

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.


CONGRATULATIONS! Once again on behalf of all our staff.

Yours faithfully,
Queen Salote Tupou III of Tonga (1918-65)
MICROSOFT E-MAIL LOTTERY PROMOTION COORDINATOR.

Copyright © 1994-2007 The Microsoft Internet E-mail lottery Awards Promotion Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Service -Guideline.


You must be 16 or over to play or claim a prize

[Zanshin]

I used to make a hobby out of baiting 419'ers and similar scams. I had a fake name (Ernest Rutherford), photoshopped fake passport in that name, fake letterhead on a fake company and a purchased internet FAX number (not traceable back to me) and would enjoy leading these scammers on. I've had some nasty emails and FAXes when they realized that I was wasting their time, but do have a collection of wonderful passport pics of ostensible tribal "chiefs" and government "Ministers" and official documents telling Mr. Rutherford how many millions he had just waiting for him. One of my favorites was a series of mails with Imelda Marcos (who had cold-mailed me with a request to help her collect milllions of dollars of funds in some escrow account) discussing banking arrangements and shoe colors.
It is scary that so many people fall for these schemes. So many, that the U.S. Department of the Treasury has a whole department dedicated to 419 scam prevention.

[Sapperwhite]

You're a winner!!!!!!

[cardiacpaul]

well...
thanks for nuttin'.
Here I had these 3 checks and now I find out they are worthless? I mean really, I had the down payment all set to go over to Rick @ Valiant. I thought I was just livin' right.
Man oh man, what am I gunna tell TheCuban, she had her heart set on some new adult toys. This ain't gunna be good, not at all.