What Does a Scam Really Look Like?

Yesterday, I wrote about how Craigslist didn't like my sense of humor and twice rejected my ads for free snowmen (assembly required). Click here to see what happened.

So what is a REAL Scam that people fall for?

Take a look at this email that arrived in my Spam folder:

Dear Lucky Winner, This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS ($900,000.00) for the YEAR 2011 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO! LOTTERY INC for the introduction of the new YAHOO! BETA MAIL which all YAHOO! users are required to switch onto. YAHOO! & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, arrange and gather all the e-mail addresses of the people that are active online around the world, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and other Company's E-mails ID, we only select NINE (9) candidates per annually as our winners through Electronic Balloting System (EBS) without the candidate applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected. PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM We are sorry that your Payment Approval File was sent to United Kingdom due to we have 4 lucky winners in UK so that you can be cleared and paid simultaneously there. You are to contact our UK Location Claims Agent on or before your date of Claim. Yahoo Beta Lottery Prize must be claimed not later than 14 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won. Note: Any prize not claimed within this period (14 days) will be forfeited. These are your identification numbers: Batch number......................

YBM-EBS-390AF
Reff number.......................YBM-EBS-719AF
Winning number....................YBM-EBS-798AF


These numbers above fall within the UK agent's Location file, you are requested to contact him and send your Identification Numbers and Personal Information to him;

REV SILVERIO HENCO at his Current email:
E-mail : rev_silverio_henco51@propertybuyeragents.com
Phone: +447024074114

You are therefore advised to send the following information to him to facilitate them and process the transfer of your fund with the appointed paying bank.

Send your Identification Numbers/Your Personal Information to him immediately:

Personal Information
1. Full name...................
2. Country.....................
3. Contact Address.............
4. Telephone Number............
5. Marital Status..............
6. Occupation..................
7. Age.........................
8. Sex.........................
9Means For Transfer Or Payment.
1 International Certified Bank Draft.
2 Account Transfer.
If Account Transfer write the name of bank and your account No.
Name of Bank...................
Account No.....................
Signature......................
Date...........................
Congratulations once again.
Yours in service,

NOTE: NO ONE WILL TOUCH YOUR MONEY FOR ANY REASON AND AN AFFIDAVIT OF CLAIM WILL BE PRESENTED TO THE BANK BY THE BRITISH CROWN COURT BEFORE THE BANK CAN RELEASE YOUR MONEY.

Unfortunately, there are enough people who are either too stupid, too gullible, or too desperate and they respond to this with the hope that they are really going to be able to quit their job etc.

Do your part and warn those that might fall for these scams...

(image from bookpalace.com)