{"id":2300,"date":"2019-04-06T19:34:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T19:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/?p=2300"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T17:00:00","slug":"Microsoft-'Yearly-Anniversary-Winning'-Advance-Fee-Scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/?p=2300","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft ‘Yearly Anniversary Winning’ Advance Fee Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Pounds<\/a><\/p>\n

According to this email , which purports to be from software giant Microsoft, \u00a0you are the lucky winner of \u00a0nine hundred and fifty thousand Great British Pounds Sterling. Supposedly, your email address was selected via an ‘e-mail beta draw’ \u00a0as the winner of an annual Microsoft promotion. \u00a0The \u00a0message claims that the promotion is designed to \u00a0encourage the use \u00a0of Microsoft products and its software services.<\/p>\n

To \u00a0claim your unexpected windfall, you are instructed to email \u00a0your details to the \u00a0Microsoft Program Administrator\/Coordinator.<\/p>\n

But, alas, you have won no prize, the supposed promotion does not exist, and the email is most certainly not from Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Instead, the message is a typical advance fee scam<\/a> designed to trick you into sending your money and personal information to online criminals.<\/p>\n

If you were to send \u00a0your details as instructed, you would soon begin receiving requests \u00a0for \u00a0money. \u00a0The scammers will claim that, to receive your prize, you must first pay various expenses associated with \u00a0the transfer of the funds. They will ask you to send money to cover various expenses such as tax fees, bank and accounting costs, and legal bills. \u00a0If you comply and send money the first time, the scammers will continue to request further fees until you run out of money or realise that you are being conned. The scammers will then simply disappear with all of the money you have \u00a0sent and leave you waiting forlornly for a \u00a0prize that will never arrive.<\/p>\n

And, to make matters even worse, the scammers may have \u00a0collected enough of your personal information during the course of the scam to steal your identity.<\/p>\n

Advance fee lottery scams like \u00a0this one have \u00a0been around for decades and predate the Internet. \u00a0Nevertheless, they still manage to find many new victims every year.<\/p>\n

Be wary of any unsolicited \u00a0message that \u00a0claims that you have won a large prize in a lottery or promotion that you have \u00a0never even entered. Legitimate companies \u00a0or lottery organisations do not give away large swags of cash to people based on the random selection of their name or email address.<\/p>\n