Current mood:

confused

It's pretty good, but still sounds fake...
Okay, I'm sure everyone has received those "I'm in Africa and I have a million dollars in my bank account. How about you give me the information to your bank account and we can share the money?" type emails and it's not a big secret that when you do get those emails, you should ignore them. I got this email today, and I can't tell if it's actually real or if it's one of those African-scam-type emails. But this one kind of sounds real but doesn't sound real at the same time. I don't know, what do you think:

"FROM: THE DESK OF THE VICE PRESIDENT MR.AUSTIN THOMAS.(TRANSNATIONAL
AWARD INTERNATIONAL) PRIZE AWARD DEPT.

ATTN: WINNER.

RE: SCHOLARSHIP AWARD NOTIFICATION, FINAL NOTICE.

We are pleased to inform you, that as a result of our RECENT LOTTERY
DRAWS HELD ON THE 28TH DECEMBER 2006. Your e-mail address attached to
ticket number: with serial number: drew lucky
numbers:05-06-12-14-38 which consequently won in the 5th category. You
have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay of (FIVE HUNDRED
THOUSAND US DOLLARS) in cash credited to file with REF:
?.EGS/3662367114/13Note that all participants in this lottery program
have been selected randomly through a computer ballot system drawn from
over 20,000 Officials and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from all
search engines and web sites,from Asia, Australia, NewZealand, Europe,
North and South America, Middle East and Africa, as part of our
International Promotions Program.This promotional program takes place
every year,and is promoted and sponsored by eminent personalities like
the Sultan of Brunei and other corporate organizations. This is to
IMPROVE THE LEVEL OF EDUCATION WORLDWIDE and to ENCOURAGE THE USE OF
INTERNET AND COMPUTERS WORLDWIDE. Your fund is now deposited with Eco
Bank and insured in your name For security purpose and clarity,we advise
that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims
have been processed and your money remitted to your account.

This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claims and
unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants. We look forward
to your active participation in our next 4 million dollars slot. To
begin the processing of your prize you are to contact your claims agent
through our accredited Prize Transfer agents as stated below:

Name..Rev FRANK IBE

TEL: +234-80-3819 1724 CALL HIM IMMEDIATELY WITH HIS ABOVE DIRECT PHONE
NUMBER IF YOU ARE CALLING FROM (USA) THIS IS HOW YOU DIAL 011-234-80-3819
1724 BUT IF YOU ARE CALLING FROM ANY OTHER COUNTRY,THIS IS HOW TO DIAL
+234-80-3819 1724 You are also advised to provide your claim agent with
the under listed information as soon as possible send it to his two email
addresses below,YOUR CLAIM AGENT E MAIL ADDRESSES BELOW,

E MAIL: frank_ibe3001@yahoo.com
E MAIL: frank_ibe2002001@myway.com

1. Name in full
2. Address
3. Nationality
4. Age
5. Occupation
6. Phone/Fax
7. Batch Number
8. Serial Number

All winnings must be claimed not later than one month after the date of
this notice. Please note,in order to avoid unnecessary delays and
complications,remember to quote your Batch number and Serial numbers in
all correspondence.Furthermore,should there be any change of address do
inform our agent as soon as possible.Congratulations!!!once more and
thank you for being part of our promotional program. Bear in mind that
10% of your fund will be going to the lottery organization that played
the lottery with peoples name and email addresses that should be after
you most have received the fund in your account,the 10% would have been
given to them,just because the fund has been insured and will not be
removed till you receive the fund in your account.

Sincerely,

MR.AUSTIN THOMAS
VICE PRESIDENT.
TRANSNATIONAL AWARD"

Now, a couple things about this email throw me off. (1)According to the email address, the person who sent this is named "paul" from paulartsworld.net, not a Mr. Austin Thomas. The names have me confused. (2)I've never been to paulartsworld.net (until today to check it out... I still don't get what type of website it is) and I don't remember entering in a contest like this. (3) Sending my information to TWO email addresses? Sounds suspicious... (4)What is "Transnational Award International" and what does it have to do with paulartsworld.net? Sounds like a made up company... (5)It might be because of the viewer, but the grammar in this whole thing is very off...

I don't know what to make of this. Does this email sond fake to you or was whoever writing it just really bad with computers?