McAfee has intercepted emails from criminals claiming to be from the 'Nationale Postcode Lottery' [sic] and wanting to pay the recipient £800,000.

"Winner We bring to your notice the winning letter from Nationale Postcode Lottery {United Kingdom Promotion Company} held on the 8th of May, 2008 through Internet ballot System among 10,000 Microsoft users," the badly-written email reads.

Other than the complete misunderstanding of the term 'postcode lottery' and the poor spelling, the scammers have also made other mistakes in the emails, including two different signatures and a footer message from an Irish ISP.

Even as a US-based company, McAfee understood just how ludicrous the idea of a postcode lottery that awards prizes is.

"Postcode Lotteries in the UK are generally bad news. The remote money fraudsters are taking a very different view. According to the bottom-feeders a Postcode Lottery is a competition you can win!" said Chris Barton of McAfee.

www.mcafee.com

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