Yesterday I won $500,000.00!

Really, it's true, they wrote to tell me!!
Yesterday I received a mail from the Japanes Lottery to inform me, that I had won the above sum in a lottery and would I please phone to confirm, that I was really me and to inform them where I wanted the Toyota, which just happened to be part of the winnings, shipped to!

Well, of course, you can imagine how excited I was, especially as I have to pay last years income tax soon, and was wondering where the money should come from. Just imagine! My mail address was picked out by a computer, from 2,5000,000 other mail addresses and mine won! Of course, I reached for the phone immediately ...
... you bet I did!

First, they can't even spell 'Japanese'! There were two or three further spelling mistakes and a couple of wrong tenses.
Well - just to give them the benefit of the doubt, you can't just go around distrusting the 'Toyota Claiming Security Agency' (all capitalised) I sent a copy of the mail to Scam-O-Matic at www.joewein.net - Imagine my disappointment, when they informed me of twenty good reasons, why I hadn't won after all!

* The sender address of that email has been used in a known fraud before.
* An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
* The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
• "toyota car international promotion program"
• "toyota fortune lotto"
• "toyota claiming security agency"
• "www.luckyjapan.com"
* This email looks like a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
1. They do not notify winners by email.
2. You can not win without first buying a lottery ticket.
3. They do not randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
4. They do not use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
5. They do not tell you to call a mobile phone number.
6. They do not tell you to keep your winnings secret.
7. They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
* The following phrases should put you on alert:
• "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
* This email lists mobile phone numbers.
• +8613711016724 (China, prepaid mobile phone) (Why would Toyota use a Mobile Phone Number in China?)
And so on, and so on ...

Spoil sports!