3,500,000 Euros!
I'm participating in Steve Pavlina's Million Dollar Experiment. So far I've made $1.01. (Found it on the sidewalk - a one dollar bill one day and a penny another day.) Maybe I don't believe really truly in it deep down inside.... And then the following email arrived:
FROM THE DESK OF THE VICE PRESIDENT.
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD.
BACTH NO:LMSP/82255742/33
REF NO:LMSP/7393794/33
RE: AWARD WINNING FINAL NOTIFICATION.
This is to inform you of the release for the GLOBAL LOTTERY
INTERNATIONAL/WORLD GAMING BOARD. Held on the 1st of march 2005.Due to the mix of numbers, the results were released today 19TH NOV 2005. Your name was attached to the ticket number 00788769 with serial number 0980978-0 drew lucky numbers of 1-3-19. Which consequently won the lottery in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved for the lump sum payment of 3.500.000.00 (Three Million Five Hundred Thousand Euros) in cash credited to file with REF NO:LMSP/7393794/33.
CONGRATULATION: Due to mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claim and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants.
All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from only Microsoft users from 20,000 companies, and 3,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world.This promotional program takes place every three years. To begin your lottery claim, please contact the processing company that have been appointed for the processing of your lottery winning. The person appointed to handle your processing and remittance of your prize money to an account of your choice is Dr.PAUL HUNTER Director Operation Euro Credit Commission S.A Madrid Spain.
C/ Jaun Carlos;47,28100 Madrid Spain.
Telephone :+34 675-025-589
fax :+34646711964
Email:(paul_hunter17@rediffmail.com)
Any claim not made Two weeks from this date, will be returned as unclaimed to the MINISTERIAL VAN DE ECONOMIA SPAIN. Note that all unclaimed winnings will be included in the next stake. Also in order to avoid unnecessary delay and complications, remember to quote your reference and batch numbers on all your correspondence with Dr.Paul hunter
Follow all his instruction religiously.Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible. Congratulations once more from all our staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.
Yours Sincerely
Mrs Ana Lopez
There are lots of clues that this is a scam (such as what's a Spanish bank officer using an Indian webmail site for). If I wasn't in the Experiment for sure I would have just deleted this. But I figured "What the heck?" and emailed back asking for instructions on redeeming my prize. Back comes a Word document I'm supposed to fill out and return. After setting Word's macro security to Super Duper Extremely Paranoid High I opened the doc. As I expected, they're asking for my bank account and tracking information.
If this really is on the up-and-up then I'm giving up about four million Euros. I'm half tempted to open up a web bank account with, like, five dollars in it just to find out for sure. But this doesn't sound like the "healthy and positive way" I'm intentioning for, so I think my million will have to come from somewhere else!