Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Here's another version of the Yahoo / Microsoft scam. Again, if you don't see the obvious signs of a scam here, you ought to be worried: Yahoo and Microsoft are competitors. They don't "collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online" and their staff generally know how to spell simple words like "Incorporated" or "Corporation". Or use their own spell checkers...
Below is another example of a fake lottery; this one claiming to be from the "YAHOO & MSN MICROSOFT WINDOWS LOTTERY" which they say is sponsored by Microsoft in the United Kingdom.
Note the usual clues to an obvious fraud that we have highlighted in the letter. Especially notice the free Yahoo email return address. Doesn't it make sense that Microsoft would notify winners of a lottery it sponsors, via a competitor's email system? And if that isn't an obvious enough sign for you, since when does Microsoft operate a lottery?
This one is really too stupid to believe that anyone would fall for it... And for another, even worse attempt Microsoft scam, see this page.
Date: Mon, 26 March 2007 16:05:59 +0100 (WAT)
From: MSN / YAHOO LOTTERY [ Msn_lotto@hotmail.co.uk ]Yahoo/Msn Lottery Incoperation
Baley House, Har Road Sutton,
Greater London SM1 4te
United Kingdom.This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Five hundred thousand, Great Britain Pound Sterlings (£500,000.00) for the month of March 2007 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC & WINDOWS LIVE. YAHOO/MSN & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail we only select five people every Month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected.
Yahoo/Msn Lottery Prize must be claimed no later than 20 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.
These are your identification numbers:
Batch number.....................YM 09102XN
Reff number.......................YM35447XN
Winning number...................YM09788
How ever you will have to fill and submit this form to the events manager for verification & direction on how you can claim your winning fund.
1. Full name:
2. Contact Address:
3. Age:
4. Telephone Number:
5. Marital Status:
6. Sex:
7. Next Of Kin:
8. Zip Code:
9. Occupation:
10. Company:
11.State:
12.Country:
13.Nationality:
14. Your Reference and Batch number at the top of this mail:
CONTACT EVENTS MANAGER)
Name: Mr.Lesley Macdavid
E-mail: agent_lesley@msn.com
Thank you and Accept my hearty congratulations once again!
Yours faithfully,
Mrs.Florina Bent
(Yahoo/Msn Lottery Games/Lottery Coordinator).
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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