!!!CONGATULATIONS! YOU ARE A WINNER OF YAHOO LOTTERY 2007!!!

If I had received the following email in my Yahoo account first, I might have been somewhat less skeptical, until I reached the MSN email address further down. That address does not necessarily mean that it is a scam, but the fact that email is going through to non Yahoo email addresses shows that something is fishy.

The original email also has lots of downloadable pictures and links which I opted to not open up. I tried to show this to Yahoo but they were unable to do anything unless I forwarded them the actual email - but if I did that my email account would have to download the rest of the missing links and make the originator aware of my valid home email account. I chose not to do that. Instead I am posting it here. I have since received a similar email in my Yahoo account. It would be nice if Yahoo really did give out random cash prizes, but alas $800,000 US is just too good to be true.

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Yahoo! Mail gives members random cash prizes. Today, your account is randomly selected as the one of 5 top winners accounts who will get cash prizes from us.We are happy to inform you that you have won a prize money of (Eight Hundred Thousand Us Dollars ($800,000) for the month of June, 2007. Lottery win promotion which is organized by yahoo messenger .com every month.

YAHOO, collects all the mail ID of the people that are online on yahoo messenger, among the millions that subscribe to yahoo messenger we only select five people every month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying,we are congratulating you for been one of the people selected.All participant were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually.
This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomorate of somemultinational companies as part of their social responsibility to thecitizens in the commmunities where they have operational base.Further more your details(e-mail address) falls within our British representative office in United Kingdom , as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of US$800,000 will be released to you from this regional branch office in UK.2
We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of yearhigh stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw.HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE
These are your identification numbers..........

Batch number.......................Lwh 09445
Lotto number........................Lwh09446
Winning number...................Lwh09447

To begin your claims, kindly contact the Fiduciary Agent at this email address ( [removed portion]@yahoo.co.uk,[removed portion]@msn.com) You are required to forward him with the following details:

1.FULL NAME
2.COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
3.PRESENT ADDRESS
4.SEX
5.DATE OF BIRTH
6.AGE
7.OCCUPATION
8.TELEPHONE NUMBER
9.FAX NUMBER(IF ANY)
10.MARITAL STATUS
11.WINNING NUMBER,BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER.
12 THE MONTH YOU WON........................................................

As soon as you contact the Attorney, he will advise you on what to do in order to get your prize money.Congratulations once more!!

For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this informationconfidential from the public until your claim is processed and yourprize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoiddouble claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr WILLIAM GERRI
LOTTO CO-ORDINATOR.
The Yahoo.com staff
[email address removed]