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August 14, 2012

Woohoo! I just won not only a million pounds, but also "free entrance tickets to watch the games live in London" How lucky can a guy get?

It's the old advance-fee (a.k.a. 419) scam. Maybe my email address was on a slow list. Or the scammer just doesn't give a damn that the games are over. Here is some of the text from the Word attachment to my otherwise non-descript email message:

2012 London Olympics Promotion Draws Notice

Attention: Dear Winner,
This is to inform you that London 2012 summer Olympic awareness and promotion company and London 2012 summer Olympics Organizing Committee (LSOOC) here in London (U.K) has held an Internet Raffle Draw today among all internet email users around the globe and your email address was among the 10,000,000.00 (Ten million) email addresses that was randomly picked by the computer during the Second Quarter Raffle Draw in conjunction with Microsoft (SQRD).

We are therefore with great pleasure to notify you that your email address happened to come out top number (6) out of the 10,000,000.00. (Ten million) email addresses on the final email ballot draw.
Please note that this has made you the jackpot winner of £1,000,000.00 (One Million British Pounds Sterling Only) and free entrance tickets to watch the games live in London.

Participant’s email addresses were sorted globally (Powered by Microsoft) from companies, individuals, Government's agencies, co-operate bodies, charity homes etc and computed “RANDOMLY" via E-sorting balloting to select respective winners around the globe.
Be aware that this Internet Raffle Draw (IRD) was organized by London 2012 summer Olympic awareness and Promotion Company and London 2012 summer Olympics Organizing Committee (LSOOC) to create awareness to the world as England is finalizing their preparation for the hosting of the 2012 summer Olympics.

What I really like about this message is that it is littered with copies of London 2012 Olympics logos and art. My hope is that the International Olympic Committee will hunt down these assholes for abusing the "Olympics" name, as they are wont to do. The fact that the scammers are in South Africa should present no geographical barriers to the IOC. Maybe give the guy a call on the number provided in the message, arrange a meeting, bring the cops...ooh, let me dream!