No insight on microsoft-ace.com, but I will tell a short story that may give you pause now and in the future.

I received an e-mail four months ago congratulating me on the purchase of a Dell Laptop (true), and telling me I had won a $1500 LCD TV (uhm...)  The sender was "eprize.com", and I had won the "Dell 1 in 100 sweepstakes" or somesuch. The e-mail made a big deal of advising me that "you will receive no other communications or mailings by postal mail regarding your prize" and to just please fill out name, address, job, e-mail, and social security number below.

Yeah, right, sure, youbetcha.  I'm about a half second from nuking the phishy message, but curiosity and greed gets the best of me. I go to Dell's site, and search for the contest name. No dice. I go to Google and do the same, nothing. I call Dell and talk to three different operators. None of them have heard of the contest and two out of the three advise me it's most certainly a scam. I call E-prize, Inc  and leave a message regarding the veracity of my supposed prize. Nobody called me back.

But greed is a powerful thing, and I'm looking for any reason at all to hold onto the dream of the lovely flat panel TV hanging on my wall. Back in the day I was trained as an art student and a writer. The documents that accompanied the prize letter are good: well written, well designed, super-nice looking stuff. And on that assurance I put down my legal name, address, contact info, and real social security number.

Six weeks pass. And one day, without notice, warning, or congratulations, a large box shows up on my doorstep, containing a pristine $1500 flat panel TV. We've enjoyed it ever since.

Moral: some of those scams may be the real thing! Corolllary: good luck telling the real from the fake!

-KF