I won nothing, and neither will you! (Sorry)
July 20, 2009Tweet
I got yet another phishing email today, from THE MR ARTHUR ALGANZO. He has an email address hosted at hotmail.com, and the subject was “Confirmation Ticket Number:X-3007333284″.
The message dictated to me that, first of all, “this is not a spam or contains virus”, simply a notification from “free lottery INTERNATIONAL”. I read on to find…
Your electronic email address emerged as one of the Free Lotto Daily Jackpot on-line winning email sweepstakes program held on the 20th of July,2009 in Amsterdam The Netherlands., hence your email address attached to a cash award of €1,000,000.00 (One Million Euro Only).
The message, (sent from THE MR ARTHUR ALGANZO) was signed
Kind Regards,
Mrs. Elizabeth Den Bach,
Promotions Coordinator,
Now, for those of you who are unaware (and if you’re unaware I fear for you), this was a phishing email. It was not real. Ever. However, when I sarcastically Twittered about the message:
GUYS! I won 1,000,000 euros in a lottery in the Netherlands! It says so in an email from THE MR ARTHUR ALGANZO! Woo!
I got ten responses. Two were sarcastically acknowledging it being a scam and laughing at my insightful wit, one was angry yelling at me that it was fake, and the other seven were inquiring about whether or not I entered, wondering how much money that was in US dollars, and congratulating me on what I thought was an obviously fake lottery jackpot.
It’s those last seven people I’m concerned about.
You see, if these people were to get one of these emails, I find it highly likely that they would respond in an attempt to collect their millions, giving away all sorts of bank, credit card, and other highly personal information, and become broke identity fraud victims. To these people: This was not real. If you did not enter a lottery in a strange European country you will not win a lottery in a strange European country. Also, no lottery will email you with a form attached to collect these winnings. Thank you.
Then again, maybe we should let these people drown in phishing scams so we can weed them out. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with them when they’re blabbering in line in front of me at Starbucks. Just saying.
Very obvious spam, yes.
Just wondering what’s so strange with the Netherlands (even though it would be strange if anyone American, or Swedish like me for that matter, would be attending some lottery there).
Very obvious spam, yes.
Just wondering what’s so strange with the Netherlands (even though it would be strange if anyone American, or Swedish like me for that matter, would be attending some lottery there).
Very obvious spam, yes.
Just wondering what’s so strange with the Netherlands (even though it would be strange if anyone American, or Swedish like me for that matter, would be attending some lottery there).
Very obvious spam, yes.
Just wondering what’s so strange with the Netherlands (even though it would be strange if anyone American, or Swedish like me for that matter, would be attending some lottery there).