Whether this is legal lottery win notification ?

Question

The Msn/Yahoo Lottery Incorporation

Baley House, Har Road

Sutton, Greater Londom

SM1 4te United Kingdom.

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Batch number.....................YM 09102XM

Reff number.......................YM35447XM

Winning number.....................YM YM0988

Dear Lucky winner "VIJAY KUMAR"

We wish to congratulate you once again on this note,for being part of the 5 winners selected on this month of july 2008.The Msn/Yahoo Windows Live in conjunction with the Microsoft Windows felicitate with you and your family.This promotion was set-up to encourage the active users and subscribers of the Msn/Yahoo Internet Windows.

Hence we do believe with your winning prize ,you will continue to be active and patronage to the Msn/Yahoo Windows.I wish to formally announce to you that you have successfully pass the requirements, statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report Test conducted for all on line winners.

A winning cheque valued: £500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand,Great Britain Pounds Sterling),has been issued in your name by the Msn/Yahoo Lottery Incorporation and your winning cheque has been to send to bank for easy transfer.

You are therefore expected to contact our affiliated Bank (ZENITH BANK UK) in which your winnings cheque has been sent to for the transfer of your funds into your account.

Do contact the Zenith Bank with the below contact information for further instructions on how to send your winning funds to your acconut and the amount to be charged in the Cost Of Transfer (COT).

TRANSFER DEPARTMENT CONTACT INFORMATION

:Contact Email: [e-mail]

FUND TRANSFER OFFICER: Mr Clifford Dawn

OFFICE MOBILE: [phone]

447035905880

The Msn/Yahoo lottery has discovered a huge number of double claims due to winners informing close friends relatives and third parties about their winning and also sharing their pin numbers. As a result of this, his/her friends might try to claim the lottery on behalf of the real winners. The Msn/Yahoo lottery has reached a decision from headquarters that any double claim discovered by the Lottery Board will result to the canceling of that particular winning, making a loss for both the double claimer and the real winner, as it is taken that the real winner was the informer to the double claimer about the lottery. So you are hereby strongly advised once more to keep your winnings strictly confidential until you claim your prize.

Note:This office will not be responsible for any outstanding fee. Services rendered by the Bank are to be paid by you and not the lottery board,for the fact that the lottery organizers didn't make any provision for any upcoming expenses regarding COT.

Have it in mind that your won prize cannot be deducted from , this is because the total amount has been insured to the real value .This is to protect winners and to avoid misappropriation of funds.

I will require a concise update on proceedings with the firm as soon as you are in contact with them.If you need any assistance whatsoever, please do not hesitate to let me know.Do have a nice day.

Be advice to fill this form for verification and forward it to the bank office.

WINNER'S VERIFICATION FORM

WINNER'S PERSONAL DATA

First Name.:

Middle Name.:

Last Name.:

Gender.:

Month Of Birth.:

Marital Status.:

Nationality.:

Religion.:

Occupation.:

Address 1:

City.:

State/Province.:

Zip Code.:

Mobile phone No.:

Email Address:

WINNING INFORMATION

Batch Number:

Serial Number:

Refrence Number:

Answer 1

SPAM! SPAM! SPAM!

Answer 2

Definitely not!  It's a scam, designed to obtain your personal information so they can steal your identity.  Do not respond in any way to this kind of email.  Just delete it from your email folders.  (Delete, then clear out your Deleted folder.)

Answer 3

I can't wait to take you home and pop the question

Answer 4

It's a SCAM!

Ignored at once ^_^

Answer 5

This couldn't be more fake if it tried to be.

First off, Microsoft and Yahoo! are not exactly best of friends right now since Microsoft keeps trying to buy Yahoo! and Yahoo! keep telling them no.

So they certainly don't run lotteries together that pays random people money for no reason.

Secondly, the English in this email is atrocious.  It's not even close to the professionalism of a company that is getting ready to give away £500K (or $1,000,000 ish).

As well as the numerous gramatical errors, notice how the address is spelled wrong?  London, the capital city of England, spelled wrong.  Does that even seem likely?  It's like an American not being able to spell Washington.  Or know what DC means.

The post code is wrong.  A UK post code is ALWAYS in capital letters.  No exceptions.

Speaking of capital letters MSN is always in capitals, as is PIN (not pin number).

And since when does a lottery winner need to divulge their religion and occupation?  I mean, who cares?

And Zenith Bank?  Seriously.  Their website looks very suspect.  But if you check the info about them they claim to be a UK bank that is also based in Nigeria.  Only the one country more famous for Internet scams than anything else.

What's wrong with one of the four major banks in the UK?  Why pick some obscure bank that is partnered with Nigeria?

In fact if you run the postcode on the Zenith Bank web site though the Royal Mail postcode search it claims that the postcode is invalid.  Oops.  In fact if you do a WHOIS on the domain name (which oddly is a .com not a .co.uk, it can be traced back to Nigeria, again odd for a British Bank).

So quite honestly, it doesn't pass the laugh test.  But if you really look into it, it is clearly a scam.

Answer 6

NO. And I haven't even read the question.

Answer 7

FAKE FAKE FAKE!

...avoid it like the plague my friend

Answer 8

As the boys form monty python used to say

scam, scam, scam, scam, scam, scam, chips and scam

without the chips

Answer 9

Absolutely not a genuine lottery win at all!

Don not send ANY personal details at all, and forward this to the police in your country, it is a con!!!!!

Answer 10

Its spam get rid of it.