I’ve won three million Euros from Bill Gates!

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
@
@[email protected]
@gcluley

Excuse me for typing breathlessly, faithful Naked Security reader, but I have some incredible news to share.

I have just been informed that I have won three million Euros from none other than the Bill Gates Foundation!

I had no idea that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which normally fights poverty around the world and promotes healthcare, even ran a lottery – let alone that I had entered. But clearly, I did and now one of their representatives has been in touch to tell me the good news.

Bill Gates Foundation lottery scam

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Bill and Melinda Gates are renowned around the world for their incredible generosity – they’re not only planning to give millions away to me, but they’re also happy to employ staff who spells the boss’s surname incorrectly. It’s great that Bill and Melinda are not adverse to employing people with literacy problems.

Counting isn’t this emailer’s strong point either. He’s managed to attach a grand total of 69 files to this email telling me about my windfall. Eventually I found the right one, entitled LOTTERY BILL GATES FOUNDATION.docx

Scam Word document

All that they require is for me to share some personal information with them.. and then riches will be mine!

So, this is probably going to be the last article that you’ll see me writing on Naked Security. I’ll be picking up my winnings and riding off into the sunset. I can’t tell you how much fun it’s been, but this is goodbye..

.. unless this is a scam, of course. But that couldn’t be the case… could it??


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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