A Right Royal Grant?

Wow, according to the e-mail I received today I have been awarded a grant of half-a-million pounds [£500,000.00], not just from any old society or company, but from one calling itself 'Queen Elizabeth's Foundation'!

I'm honoured, that I have personally come to the attention of our countries ruling monarch, and what's more she feels that I deserve half-a-million in cash with her head on it all...

Here's a screenshot of the e-mail, so that you can see it for yourself, and bask in my glory:



OK, yes I'm not really being serious, or getting too big for my boots, or thinking that I'm now above you all ;-) I know it is a scam and I'm just playing along.

So, let me start by checking out if the domain that the email claims to be sent from actually has a website:



Nope, no website, most odd! OK, so let me know check to see who the domain is registered with and to whom:



If I didn't already know that this was a 419 scam, then I would by now, so let me dig deeper. Next, let me check out the phone numbers, they look real and they are, but they are not registered to any charity or person, they are so-called 'personal' numbers being offered for FREE by the following company:



So, what do we know so far? There is no such society or organisation, the telephone numbers given are real but suspect, they have no website and the domain isn't even registered [so how could they send e-mail from it?], and finally they want me to reply to a different e-mail address, and they can't make their mind up as to who I should be replying to, is it:

Rooney James or Williams Anderson?

To get to the bottom of the mystery of where the e-mail was sent from, I took a quick peek at the raw headers, and what did I find? I found that the e-mail was actually sent via the webmail service of the company shown in the final screenshot, below:



Yes, they sent the e-mail using a webmail service based in Hawaii, for the United Kingdom monarch who's name is used for an organisation that doesn't exist, doesn't have a website or own a domain at all, and they want me to reply to an email account hosted on Microsoft Live, just so that they can send me half-a-million quid!

So, do you smell a rat now, or would you send them the data they ask for?

Just to be crystal clear about this: There is no money, as usual, this is a scam which has been around in one format or another for many years, all that happens if you get caught up with these scammers is that you will lose money, not gain any.

Just because they use the name of the Queen of the United Kingdom, and names of well known real organisations such as UNICEF, doesn't mean that this is real [even if the money actually existed, which it doesn't]. This is just another twist in 'The Game' that is collectively known as 419 or Advance-Fee-Fraud.

Sorry, Your Majesty, but I'm going to have to turn down your kind offer...