So I get this letter in the mail addressed to "Isbell Aaron Reese" but misspellings and random orders are nothing new with my name and random mail. Anyway, it's from Spain-- "El Mundo Spanish Sweepstake Lottery" and from the desk of the Vice President of the International Promotions/Prize Award Dept in Madrid, Espana. It would seem that I've won $615,810.00 U.S. dollars because these nice people at Inorbit Securities S.A. entered my name for this drawing that the official Spanish lottery (Loterias y Apuestas del Estado, of the Ministerio De Hacienda) held in August. Lucky me! All I have to do is call a number in Spain, give over 10% of the $615,810.00 to Inorbit, provide my bank account information so they can deposit it, and fax in a "Payment Processing Form." Woohoo! That's it! I don't have to do anything. In fact, I didn't have to do anything either since I never entered any contest. But lucky for me these nice people saw fit to randomly draw my name "through a computer ballot system drawn from 25,000 names" from all over the world as "part of our International promotions program."

Thankfully we have the internet these days. For I was quickly able to Google said groups and officials and found several links (1, 2, and 3) that spell out that this is obviously a huge scam. It does seem awful real though because the scammers use letterhead, pictures, and slogans from the real lottery of Spain. So my first google for the 'Ministerio De Hacienda' turned out to be a real site and made me further confused. But thankfully, my circumspect and doubtful nature helped me to realize the fakery at hand.

I know you know this, but:
Never trust unsolicited mail. Never send money to people you don't know. Never give out your financial information. And never believe that $615,810.00 is suddenly going to fall into your lap for doing absolutely nothing.

And now back to reality and the poorhouse I live in.