a major award

About 6 months ago I posted an invitation for friends to send me their photos of dogs and cats wearing hats. I received zero photos. No dogs. No cats. No hats.

Still, the yahoo account I set up especially to receive photos is active, thanks to copious spam mails (none of which bear any mention of dogs, cats or hats). I check the account every couple of weeks in hopes of a late-breaking photo. Even a hand-drawn facsimile of a dog or cat wearing a hat? But only more spam.

Today I am fortunate to be the winner of 250 thousand pounds British money from the Coca Cola Compan. See the letter that I received:

THE COCA COLA COMPANY
PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD
DEPTCOCA COLA AVENUE
STAMFORD BRIDGE LONDON.
SW1V 3DW UNITED KINGDOM

THE COCA COLA COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual final draws held on (24th January, 2007) by Coca-Cola in conjunction with the British American Tobacco Worldwide Promotion, your email was among the 20 Lucky winners who won (£250,000.00 GBP) Two Hundred And Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling each on the THE COCACOLA COMPANY PROMOTION

However the results were released on the (30th January, 2007) and your email was attached to ticket number (7PWYZ2007) ref number (UK/839030X2/140) and ballot number(BT:12052006/20) The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 29,031 E-mail addresses of individuals and co-oporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. However, no tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy.

The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world.
This Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also Licensed by the The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR).This lottery is the 3rd of its kind and we intend to sensitize the public. In other to claim your (£250,000.00 GBP) Two Hundred And Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling prize winning, which has been deposited in a designated courier. you will have to fill the form below and send it to the claims officer of THE COCA COLA COMPANY for verification and then you will be directed to the courier company where a cheque of (£250,000.00 GBP) Two Hundred And Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling has already been deposited in your favour.

NAME:.....................................
AGE:........................................
SEX:........................................
ADDRESS:...............................
EMAIL:....................................
PHONE:...................................
OCCUPATION:.........................
COMPANY:..............................
COUNTRY:...............................
AMOUNT WON......................
TICKET NUMBER...................
BALLOT NUMBER...................
REF NUMBER.........................

Please you are adviced to complete the form and send it immediately to our claims officer through email or fax for prompt collection of your fund from the
designated courier company.

(CONTACT CLAIMS OFFICER)

Name: Flin Moore

E mail : flinclaims_lotterydepartment@yahoo.co.uk



You are to keep all lotto information away from the general public especially your ticket number ref number and ballot number. (This is important as a case of double claims will not be entertained). Staff of Coca-Cola and the British American Tobacco Company are not to partake in this Lottery.

Accept my hearty congratulations once again!

Yours faithfully,
Elizabeth Martins (Mrs)
Management


Wow! That's better than a dog and a cat, both wearing tuxedos! I will surely send this back to the Coca Cola Company's Mrs. Elizabeth Martins (whose official title looks mightily genuine) via the yahoo account that the Coca Cola Company of Britain must have set up just for this contest. Gosh, I wonder if that Mr. Flin Moore has a dog or a cat, and if said pet wears a hat. Maybe I could get a photo of me and Flin and Elizabeth and all of our pets, all wearing Coca Cola hats, and me holding the great big cheque that I just won.

question: would you respond?

mompoet dogsandcatswearinghats@yahoo.ca