Lucky Me!

A few months ago, I received a quite generous offer to help an off-shore investor looking to invest in the US (which I naturally blogged about: Spam Scam Artistry).

And just the other day I received an e-mail informing me that I am a winner of the British Charities Lottery "Mega Jackpot Lotto Winning Programs." My "company or personal e-mail address is attached" to a ticket that drew the Lucky Winning Number of 06-14-17-28-30-41. I don't remember actually entering a British Charities Lottery. And I think the last time I was in England was for a one day business trip in 1999, the highlight of which was taking the day flight from Boston to London. And I did feel all kinds of high-powered jet set by spending just one night in some very nice London suburb before jetting home.

But somebody over there must love me - at least enough to attach my personal e-mail address to a Lucky Winning Number. And if I de-compose the winning number, it actually is a number I could have chosen. 06-14-17-28-30-41. Surely, it can't be just a coincidence that I have actually experienced each of the ages associated with each of these numbers, and I'm sure if I thought about it I could come up with a lucky something-or-other that happened to me at each of those very ages, starting with the arrival of my brother Rich, who came home from the hospital on my sixth birthday. So whoever associated the winning numbers with my name sure knew what he/she was doing. Perhaps it was someone I met on that brief business trip.

I haven't yet followed up with Mr. Steven Howard to figure out how to collect my total lump sum of £680,000.00 which is way over a cool million in US. Sometimes it works out that the dollar is weak! And I'm guessing is probably tax free, given Lend Lease and all the other great and generous things we did for England at one time or another; let alone given the love-fest between Tony Blair and George W. I'll have to hurry up and claim my prize before Tony leaves the auditorium next month.

Or I could follow up with online co-ordinator Mrs. Elizabeth Grayson. She sounds nice - like a real lady. She's the one who sent me the e-mail letting me know I'd won and offering me congratulations from her and the staff.

I understand that there may be a small amount that I have to send across the pond before I can get my hands on the £680,000.00. Currency conversion fees, shipping and handling, etc. It will certainly be worth it.

According to the letter I got from Lady Grayson (as I'm starting to think of her), Sission Marketing International is the manager of the charity lotteries. Interesting that Lady Grayson, in her haste to inform me of my win, wrote "Sission" not "Sisson", which is the actual name of the company.

And funny (as in funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha), when I checked out Sisson, they have a little disclaimer on their site:

WSCAM ALERT !!!!
If you have been contacted by the British Charities Lotteries Promotions (BCLP), please be aware that this is a scam. Sisson Marketing International Limited is not managing these lotteries. The Gambling Commission and the police have been notified.

So maybe Lady Grayson typed in the name correctly, after all, and that there is a Sission Marketing out there.

In any case, I don't believe that WSCAM AERT!!!! stuff for a New York minute. I mean, all those exclamation points!!!! How hokey and fake is that?????

Tomorrow when the banks are open, I'll be writing to Lady Grayson and/or Steven Howard, who left me his e-mail address at Yahoo, so it's obviously not a scam or he wouldn't have left his e-mail address. How much can they be looking for as a sign of good faith? One percent? A half percent? I'm sure it's not much more than that. And we all know you have to spend money to make money.

I'm really pretty excited, as I sure wasn't expecting to win a lottery I'd never even entered.

And who says there's no such thing as a free lunch?