Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Won the British Lottery

3 DTY/ 6DTC

I keep getting a multitude of emails telling me that my email address has won the British Lottery or the AOL Lottery or the Microsoft Lottery and that I need to respond immediately to collect my winnings.

I'm beginning to believe these people are just plain mean. I know it's a hoax. They know it's a hoax. Money is the number one stress factor for Americans. I think it's terrible to tell someone they've one 100,000,000 British pounds, but they have to pay to get it, then they take these people's money and never give them their "winnings". Or they get the person's detailed information (name, birth date, SSN, address, birthplace, etc) and suddenly the person is the victim of identity theft.

Also, dear mean-spirited spammers, if you are going to send me an email telling me I've won the British Lottery, please learn to type. Oh, and I know you must have spell check. Try it. You can do either the British spellings or the American spellings - I don't care which - just as long as I don't have to decipher the email as if I was decoding a secret message. Since you claim to be a lawyer or a doctor (or both), I know you must have attended college. Put that education to good use!

Ugh.

11 comments:

Monnik said...

I got one not long ago asking me to help some poor widow whose husband was killed by a terrorist in Iraq. Nice.

The spelling errors are what make me shake my head. I mean, c'mon... a proficient speller is so much more convincing!

Annikke said...

My email box is so flooded with those too. I hate it. I totally agree with you that the crappy spelling irritates me to no end!
I heard a news story of a guy who liked to respond to them with false info but he would send them on a wild goose chase. I THOUGHT THAT WAS HILARIOUS!! I wish I could be that brave to do that!

Unknown said...

I know! I got one from a "soldier" in Iraq who had found a barrel of money that he was trying to get back into the states without his superiors finding out. I was mad about that one and passed it on to my soldier-supporting-friend to see if she could do anything about it. I need to check to see if anything came of it.

Amy said...

I'm getting the British Lottery thing every week! And now I'm getting friendly e-mails telling me it's a hoax and not to respond.

Duh.

meno said...

I must get 25 emails every day questioning my manhood and offering to help me with the "problem."

I am starting to get a complex because i never get any about winning the British Lottery.

TTQ said...

you said it all. especially the ugh part..

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

What I love are the phishing e-mails, telling me to update my credit card/bank card/PayPal account. I usually log on and give a fake number made up of different friends' birthdays and a password that involves cuss words. Makes my little world just that much brighter.... :-)

icanseeclearlynow said...

i agree, mean is a good way to describe these people. i get the emails that say, my wealthy husband just passed away, we have no kids, i'm dying soon and i'd like you to have my inheritance. ridiculous!

Heather said...

There must be something about blogging that gets us on these lists. I never received one of these emails until I started my blog. Now I get at least 5 a day. The scary thing is, I may really win something one day but will think it's fake and just delete it! Wishful thinking.

Unknown said...

amy - I hope you haven't been responding to these...

meno - I get those emails, too, and personally, I don't want larger genitalia. And if you'd like, I can forward you the lottery emails so you don't feel left out. :)

ttq - I love that word. Ugh. It just says so much!

heather (cmgd) - I may try that someday when I'm just feeling extra snarky. :)

icansee... - one would think they could find someone the KNOW to give their inheritance to, right?

heather (3b&m) - I could go into the many ways they get your email address with "spiders" and such, but I won't. I just hope you have a good spam filter. :)

Carrie and Troy Keiser said...

I never knew about these, if I get something that sounds hokey, I just delete! I don't even open it. Ya, know ya gotta play to win and well I don't play, so no need to open, right?! good luck. I did enjoy your rebuttal! :)
{that word verification was like 10 letter long and then it didn't work! :S}