Msn/lottery yahoo ok-ireland winning mony real/scam?

was emailed today saying i have won 1million dallery in this lottery is it real from msn and yahoo or a scam?

Advance fee fraud scam

Fraudulent cheques and money orders are key elements in many advance fee scams, such as auction/classified listing overpayment, lottery scams, inheritance scams, etc, and can be used in almost any scam when a "payment" to the victim is required to gain, regain or further solidify the victims' trust and confidence in the validity of the scheme.

The use of cheques in a scam hinges on a U.S. law (and common practice in other countries) concerning cheques; when an account holder presents a cheque for deposit or to cash, the bank must (or in other countries, usually) make the funds available to the account holder within 1-5 business days, regardless of how long it actually takes for the cheque to clear and funds to be transferred from the issuing bank. The cheque clearing process normally takes 7-10 days and can in fact take up to a month when dealing with foreign banks. The time between the funds appearing as available to the account holder and the cheque clearing is known as the "float", during which time the bank could technically be said to have floated a loan to the account holder to be covered with the funds from the bank clearing the cheque.

The cheque given to the victim is typically counterfeit but drawn on a real account with real funds in it. With a piece of software like QuickBooks or pre-printed blank cheque stock, using the correct banking information, the scammer can easily print a cheque that is absolutely genuine-looking, passes all counterfeit tests, and may even clear the paying account if the account information is accurate and the funds are available; however, whether it clears or not, it will eventually become apparent either to the bank or the account holder that the cheque is a forgery. This can be as little as 3 days after the funds are available if the bank supposedly covering the cheque discovers the cheque information is invalid, or it could take months for a business or individual to notice the fraudulent draft on their account. It has been suggested that in some cases the cheque IS genuine - however the fraudster has a friend (or bribes an official) at the paying bank to CLAIM it is a fake weeks or even months later when the physical cheque arrives back at the paying bank.

Regardless of the amount of time involved, once the cashing bank is alerted that the cheque is fraudulent, the transaction is reversed and the money removed from the victim's account. In many cases, this puts victims in debt to their banks as the victim has usually sent a large portion of the cheque by some non-reversible 'wire transfer' means (typically Western Union) to the scammer. Some victims have even been prosecuted for fraud in the scammer's stead, the argument being that the victim "should have known better" than to participate in such a scheme, and thus was a willing conspirator in the fraud.

It's a scam; I get those stupid things, and I used to WORK for MSN/Microsoft!!!! lol

its a scam. another get rich scheme for the crooks.

its a scam, dont send them any details

if you need any more info go to www.hoax-slayer.com its a really useful website.

This Yahoo Lottery scam looks almost real. The average person might look at the photos and logos and think it is legitimate. Just a few obvious problems: loads of spelling errors, lotteries NEVER email the winners.. and, oh yes, Yahoo doesn't HAVE a lottery! Don't you think you would have heard of it by now, if they did? And since when do lotteries choose winners who didn't buy a ticket: "All participant were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses".