Have you received an email from "Theresa Taylor" at "Msn quarterly Millions Promotional Bonus" saying you won
their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "Jerry Mills" to collect your winnings?
And you won all this money just because you have a Hotmail email address!
Wow!
We hate to burst your bubble, but it is a scam. And don't get too excited if the names are different; the scammers
make many versions of this scam!
It is actually a very simple scam. They claim you won a
promotion, which is giving away millions of dollars based on a randomly selected
email address. The scam is obvious: it's simply preposterous to think that
any company would randomly give away money to encourage you to buy their product. That would be self-defeating.
Although the most important clue is that no legitimate lottery,
and almost no legitimate sweepstakes or promotions will email a winner, there are many other signs that this is a fraud.
We have
highlighted some of these in the email below, not the least
of which are:
-
Email address ballot: There is no such thing as a
"computer ballot system" or "computer email draw". No one, not even
Microsoft has a database of email addresses of the type or magnitude they
suggest.
-
Terrible spelling, punctuation, syntax and grammar - Scammers
apparently don't know how to use spell checkers. We assume they
dropped out of school before that class. They use almost excessive and random CapItaLiZAtion.
They often can't even spell "February" or know that "22th" ought to
be "22nd". These scammers usually write at the 3rd grade level.
Being non-native English speakers, they also often get first names and
surnames (last names reversed), so you will frequently see names like "Mr.
SMITH JAMES.", instead of "Mr. James Smith", along with the peculiar usage
of periods (full stops) and spaces or the lack thereof.
-
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to
you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization
would use its own email, its own domain and website? Wouldn't they want to
promote that?
-
What are they promoting? No one promotes "world
peace" or "use of the internet" by handing out millions to random strangers.
And if they are promoting a product, then
this must be the world's worst promotion, because no one has heard of it,
outside of the email you just received.
-
Pay a fee to collect the prize: Nope, it is illegal
for free sweepstakes and promotions to charge you ANYTHING! Of course, in a
scam, that is the whole point: to get you to send money to the scammer.
It is a typical scam promotion sweepstakes winning notification. Also
see these pages:
Play Ticket# :10222/YXP-00152 YOU ARE A WINNER *(525,000.00GBP)*MICROSOFT
INC.
Dear Subscriber,
We are pleased to inform you of the results of the just concluded Msn
quarterly Millions Promotional Bonus which drew
your email address as one of the
lucky winners of this quarter's Millions Platinum
Vactaion Trip Card.
Being one of the lucky winners of the Msn Millions Bonanza you are
therefore a recepient of the
Platinum Vacation Trip Card which affords you the opportunity to tour round
five major cities in Europe,America and Asia as a special vacation plan,
arranged by Msn Inc.Uk, your accommodation and feeding cost are all
inclusive in your winning Platinum Vacation Trip Card .
The Vacation Platinum Card has an instant cash value of
525,000.00GBP(Five Hundred and Twenty Five Thousand Pound Sterling), which
is redeemable in cash. Winners can either redeem Platinum
Vactaion Trip Card, to engage
in the MICROSOFT INC. Round the world vacation trip, or the
equivallent cash amount of
525,000.00GBP.
All Email Address where collated from our world wide data base and other
database like aol.com, yahoo etc, and electronically extrapolated, and after
a random computarised ballot
selection by our secure MICROSOFT ORACLE DATA BASE raffle system, five
Msn/Hotmail email address emerged as the 2nd lucky winners of this quarter
Msn/Hotmail Millions and 2 lucky winner from non Msn/Hotmail email address
in which your email address was randomly selected as one of the lucky
winners.
Your email address was electronically attached to the following
credentials,
Play Ticket# :10222/YXP-00152
Claims Sort #:000000234/109.
To Proceed with the immediate process of your claims you will be required
to contact the Msn/Hotmail Millions Claims Redemption Office, with the
following informations.
FULL NAMES:
AGE:
NATIONALITY:
WINNING EMAIL ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
PHONE NUMBER:
Submit all informations
via email to the Desk of the Msn Millions Claims Process office;
CLAIMS OFFICER: MR.Jerry Mills
EMAIL: xmas_millions42010@hotmail.com
The Msn Millions Email Bonanza is organised quarterly, as a Bonanza for
all users of Msn/Hotmail world wide, above the age of 18years. From all
members and staff of the Msn/Hotmail Millions promotions of Microsoft Inc
UK, we say congratulations for your success in the recently concluded Msn
Millions .
N.B:
Please quote your Reference number in all correspondence with the claims
officer and also keep this email to yourself to avoid multiple claims.
Best Regards,
Theresa Taylor(Mrs.)
Microsoft Inc. UK/Millions Promotion
www.msn.co.uk.
TEl:+447024060315
