I know these scams have been around every since someone dreamed up the internet, but getting them through Gmail… unheard of. Google needs to use their acres of server farms and infinately fast processers to cut this problem in the bud and let us unsuspecting people not be fooled (or at least bothered) by this plague.

The latest scam I recieved was Email Lottery Scam called “Microsoft Official Winning”. Here is a transcript of the email:

The Microsoft Mega Jackpot Lottery, United Kingdom wishes to inform you that the results of our Monthly Bonanza Lottery International Program held in Great Britain is out. Your e-mail account have been picked as a certified winner of a lump sum pay out of £1,550,952.00.(One Million Five Hundred And Fifty Thousand Nine Hundred And Fifty Two Pounds Sterling) credited to MICRO (LOTTERY) CHIP NO:9465206. The winning ticket was selected from a Data Base of Internet E-mail Users,from which your Address came out as the winning coupon in this category “A” ballot lottery. You are therefore required to contact our Claims Department with your:

You are to contact the Claims Consultant with the details below:

Contact Person: Mr. Nicholas Caldwell.

E-mail : m.corporationclaimsdesk2011@xnmsn.com

THE BENEFICIARY/OWNER OF THE WINNING E-MAIL SHOULD COMPLETE OUR CLAIMS FORM.

FILL THE INFORMATION BELOW:

Name:
Age
Sex:
Marital Status:
Tel/Fax:
Address:
Occupation:
Dr. (Mrs) Elizabeth Andre

Below is a screenshot of the email (click to enlarge):

I shouldnt have to tell you to immediately mark this email as spam. You WILL NOT recieve the millions they promise and you will be out of pocket a couple hundred (even thousands) of dollars. There is NO lottery and NO prize.

There will be a point where user stats will reach a plateau and begin to level off where the rate of new users and users who absconded will be more or less equal. But at what point will that be? how many users will will a social network have to absorb before they become totally saturated; barring no other influence such as internal combustion (myspace).

At 400 Million users Facebook is still growing leaps and bounds poking their head into markets where social networks have never ventured before, winning the hearts and minds of first time social networkers and email checkers. Twitter at 75 Million users, is growing at a pace rival to that of the 2006 worldwide housing bubble and will indeed pass the 100 Million mark in the very near future.But what is the upper echelon mark to beat. What mark will dwarf any set before it. I put that mark at 1 Billion worldwide users. One Billion you say? You might think thats a staggering number but lets look at the stats.

According to the stats approximately one third of the worlds population is currently plugged in, thats about 2 billion people (give or take a few million).  A further breakdown shows half that number is currently in one or more social networks. Now imagine if the number of online users double within the next 5 years, where do you think that number will be. Doesnt seem like one billion is that far off huh? As internet speed increase as well as accessibility, users will become more drawn to each other to create more digital social connections.

Graph of current user stats for the top 5 social networks worldwide, We see that One Billion is not that far off.

European research and consulting firm InSites Consulting has released a detailed report based on a global study of 2,800 internet users. The full report provides fascinating insights into social networking preferences and behaviors around the world see below:

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