I got this email last week:

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From: “Yves DUPRAZ” yves.dupraz245@orange.fr
To: Scrud Kelley
Subject: MICROWORD CORPORATIONS:
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 01:44:09 +0100 (CET)

MICROWORD CORPORATIONS:
CUSTOMER SERVICE, VALENCIA.
REFERENCE NUMBER: MCV-RX/E-3929
BATCH NUMBER: 2009/330/MCV
OFFICIAL WINNING NOTIFICATION.

We are pleased to inform you of the released results of Sweepstakes Promotion organized by Microword Corporations, in conjunction with the foundation for the promotion of software products, held on 1st February, 2009, in Valencia, Spain. Your email address emerged as one of the online Winning emails, in the 3rd category and therefore attracted a cash award of 750,000.00 (Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand) Euros.

For more information and to begin your claim, Contact Our Foreign Transfer Manager.
David Martins
Tel:0034 634 184 321
Email:micrwoprm2@gmail.com

This Email Lottery is Sponsored by Microword Coporation and all the members of MSFT Word Resource Consortium Software Promotion Companies. This internet E-mail draw is held periodically and is organized to encourage the use of the Internet and promote computer literacy worldwide.

Congratulations!!
Sincerely,
Anna Miguel
Promotions Manager

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I am stoked, let me tell you! With Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Euros, I can take Mai Tai baths in my own Air Force Won – talk about flying high! I can’t wait to give perfect strangers all my bank account information so they can wire transfer my manna from heaven right to me. Gee, this gives them access to my life savings, so I hope they don’t take everything that I already have in that account.

If that last thought doesn’t occur to you when you get one of these most obvious of scams, then you deserve to lose your life savings. What are you thinking? That you can just win a “sweepstakes” without ever entering it? That you get something for nothing just because you have an email address? All you knuckleheads out there who fall for this scam are too brain dead or irresponsible to spend your own money anyway. When someone asks for your Social Security Number, or your bank account number, or even your high school locker combination, JUST SAY NO! Otherwise you’re going to pay for it big time in the end, guaranteed.

And what, you haven’t heard of “Google”? Use this free little service to search for “Microword Corporations” and you’ll find nothing but other bloggers laughing at this ridiculous scam. No Microword Corporations (with an “s” no less) corporate website, and no corporate email address, but instead two-count-em-two gmail return addresses. Their email misspells their own company name, and it’s signed by a different name than the header says it’s from. How many red flags do you need, for pity sake?

Hmm… but what if this isn’t a scam? Maybe I’ll just drop them a short email just in case…

Scrud Kelley
Scam Editor

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