Work at Home Angel

Friday, October 12, 2007

Avoid the “Microsoft Lottery” phishing scam

This may be a little bit off topic but it is a scam that is trying steal your information and your idenity, so I want to share my research and make sure that everybody is aware.

Recently Microsoft customers have become targets of this scam, which employs false e-mail messages that promise that you have won "The Microsoft Lottery". I am sorry to say that you did not win the Microsoft Lottery, because there is no Microsoft Lottery.

These e-mail messages are intended to start a dialogue with people in order to convince them to hand over money or personal information or to click dangerous links on the Web. This is a type of phishing scam known as an "advanced fee fraud."

Its most common form is an e-mail message that claims that you have won a large sum of money, or that a person will pay you a large sum of money for little or no work on your part. It's also known as the Nigerian Letter or the 419 scam because the scammer often claims to be from Nigeria and 419 is the Nigerian criminal code that this scam violates. You can use the same general guidance that you use to protect yourself from phishing scams to help protect yourself from these e-mail hoaxes.

Don't respond to suspicious e-mail messages.
Don't click links in suspicious e-mail messages.
Delete suspicious e-mail messages and move on.
Report suspicious e-mail messages to the Anti-phishing Working Group.

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