Mrs Therese John

Mrs Therese John, who this time has a Russian email address but lists one office address in Texas and another in Manchester (LiverPool street, with big P,) has emailed me today to say "Congratulation Just Won A Powerball Lotto".

Gosh, lucky me. Obviously jetting between Texas and Manchester (how cosmopolitan) has given 'her' a perfect grasp of the English language.

Apparently my email address has been chosen to win a prize from the Lottery Universe Organization. Or is it the Power Ball Lottery on line; no wait, at the bottom it says it's actually one of the games of the South Carolina Education Lottery. Which is why I have to be over eighteen.

Which is why 'all' they need to process my claim is:

• confirmation of my email address,
• my Social Security number
• all my phone numbers and
• my home address.

Oh and of course, I have to acknowledge receipt (ie return all those details) before they will give me any information about their New York / London Payment Centers. Like for example, an address, or whether they actually exist.

How strange, they don't want my bank details - I guess the money I own now is of no interest compared to the debt that could be run up in my name once they have enough info to fake my ID. Or maybe its not cash they're after, what about a nice passport instead and false citizenship?

See this thread (and the six attached archive pages) at Homeworking.com for variations on a theme. This is OLD, but sadly, judging by the numbers of these lottery emails still turning up, it must still be worth their while. As the average age of web users changes every year, its obvious that more and more older people are accessing email for the first time and coming across these scams for the first time too.

Grrrrrrrr.