Oh my! Followup to #writefridays 16

Oh my! After my response to #writefridays exercise 16, I received a new notification that I won a Google prize. I am so pleased that "It is OBLIVIOUS that this notification would come as a surprise".

The hits just keep coming.
Noel

Google UK Ltd

Belgrave House

76 Buckingham Palace Road

London SW1W 9TQ

United Kingdom.

　

Ref No: GUK/ 8900/88/2015

Batch: GUK/ 955/GPKLI/UK

OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION LETTER.

　

It is oblivious that this notification will come to you as a surprise but please find time to read it carefully as we congratulate you over your  success in the following official publication of results of the E-mail Electronic Online Sweepstakes Organized by Google, in conjunction with the foundation for the Promotion of Software Products (F.P.S.). Google earns its profit mainly from advertising using their very own Google search engine, Gmail, Gala, Sify, e-mail service Google Maps, Google Apps, Orkut social networking and You Tube video sharing, which are all offered to the public for free.

　

We wish to congratulate you once again, for being among the Twelve (12) selected winners in the ongoing E-mail Electronic Online Sweepstakes; we do believe with your prize, you will continue to be active in your patronage to Google and its Products. A Bank Cheque have been issued in your favor, hence you have won for yourself the sum of 450.000.00 (four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling), One Google Nexus 10 Tablet and also you have been enlisted as one of the Google Ambassadors for 2015.

　

To claim your reward, please contact our Foreign Payment Bureau officer below by neatly filling the verification and funds release form below, as your payment will be released and arranged by our United Kingdom Office.

　

MANDATORY FOREIGN PAYMENT RELEASE FORM.

　

(1) Your Contact Address:

(2) Your Contact Telephone/Mobile Number:

(3) Your Nationality/Country:

(4)Your Full Names:

(5) Occupation:

(6) Age/Gender:

(7) Marital Status:

(8) Private Email Address:

(9) Ever Won An Online Lottery?

(10) How Do You Feel As A Winner?

(11) Your preferred mode of prize remittance stated below:

　

*Courier Delivery of your certified winning cheque in your name and other Winning documents safely to your home address.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Contact our Foreign Payment Bureau officer below:

MARIA .O.BAKER

Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer with the E-mail account as follows:

Email:markbaker343@gmail.com 

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Note: You can either fill your claims verification form by printing and manually filling out the requested details or you can fill directly on e-mail, or provide the details on Microsoft Word.

　

NOTE:For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims are processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements. Please be WARNED!!!!

　

Congratulations from the Staffs & Members of Google Board Commission.

　MD Matt Brittin,

Chairman of the Board and Managing Director,

Google United Kingdom

©2015 Google Corporation.

Congratulations! You are a winner!

Exercise 16: One or more of your characters (protagonist, antagonist, supporting cast member) wins a contest. What do they receive? Is the contest one they entered? Is it something they want to win? How does the win affect the direction of their lives? Sketch a scene, or more, that shows the aftermath of the contest announcement.

Official Notification Letter.

Dear Google User.

You have been selected as a winner for using Google services,attached to

this email is Our Official Notification Letter for your perusal.

Find attached document for claims

Claims Agent: Dr David Drummod  drwilliasgibson@dr.com

Sincerely.

MD. Matt-Brittin.

Chairman Of The Board and Managing Director Google UK Ltd.

©2015 Google Corporation.

Mark read the e-mail again. He had seen far too many of these types of messages,this one had all the signs of a scam artist. Misspelled words, a random draw for a contest he had never entered, for a lottery he had never heard of, and for which he had definitely not purchased any ticket, the name of the claims agent he was to contact was different than the one in the e-mail address given. Alarms bells went off in his head.

Usually his spam filter caught messages like this, but for some reason this was delivered to his inbox instead, he moved the mouse and was about to click on delete. He paused for a moment, looked over the message again. He looked at the very official "Award Letter Powered by Google.pdf" attached at the bottom of the message. He saw the numbers ₤550,000 in numerals and written out as ₤ Five Hundred Thousand. He was uncertain about the exact exchange rate but estimated that was about $825,000 US.

He moved the mouse from Delete to Reply and clicked it instead. A new e-mail opened up, Mark highlighted the address in the e-mail body, copied the claim agent's contact and pasted it in the To: field below the reply address in the header.

He clicked in the body and began to type:

Dear Dr. David Drummond, (or Dr. Willias Gibson) or whoever your are.

I received your e-mail advising me that I had won a large sum of money for using Google services.

Normally these types of messages go straight to junk mail, the rare one that gets past my filters is deleted immediately by me. I have read too many articles and seen many reports on the internet of people scammed out of their life savings by messages exactly like this. Instead I find myself responding to you, in the vain hope that this may be true, that it may answer to our prayers.

My daughter Samantha is eight years old, and suffers from cystic fibrosis. The doctors tell us her disease is so far advanced the only hope for her is a double lung transplant, if a suitable donor can be located. If we cannot operate on her, it is likely she will die within a year, at best maybe she will live for two.The costs for her operation will be almost $800,000 and the HMO has declined to pay for it, claiming her sickness is a preexisting condition, that she had it before we were insured by them, and is ineligible. We are unable to raise that amount of money on our own. Unfortunately we do not qualify for any aid to offset the costs.Her mother and I are forced to try ease her congestion as best we can, and pray for a miracle. Please let this Official Notification be real.

Yours in hope,
Mark Reed

He hovered the mouse over the send button, let out a sigh, and clicked. As the bar showed the progress, he thought to himself the worst that can happen is he just confirmed his e-mail address to a spammer, and it would get sold to other spammers. But a faint hope, a tiny spark made him want to believe it was real, that he had actually won a contest he had never heard of, and had never entered.

He signed out of Gmail, turned off the computer, switched off the desk lamp and walked down the hall to Samantha's room. He could hear her labored breathing, the sound of the humidifier running, his wife Jolene's voice as she comforted her softly, "It's OK Sammie, we will find a way to pay, somehow." Mark took a deep breath, entered the bedroom and asked Jolene, "How is she Jo?", as he sat on the bed beside his daughter. "I have this strange feeling everything is going to be OK."

© 2015 NoelHC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was searching my Gmail Trash looking for a message like this to use as the typical scammer's baited hook, but I had not received one since the last time I emptied the junk mail. While I was searching the internet for typical wording, I saw I had a message in Spam. I was surprised and pleased to see the message quoted at the top of this piece had just arrived.

Kids, do not try this at home! There are some bad guys out there, and they are devious in parting unsuspecting victims out of  their hard earned money. Do not reply to any messages like the one I just received.