"Congrats from Olympus Canada"

It was probably the casualness -- 'congrats'. Not "congratulations!" or "You won't believe this!" or "This news is about to blow your mind!!!"

Just 'congrats from Olympus Canada' in an unexpected email. Congrats. Like 'sup. Or howzit. Or duuude. It was so simple and common that I didn't take it seriously at all. Why would I? I didn't own an Olympus camera. I'd never had any dealings with Olympus. So I only gave a lazy glance to the contents of the email.

Congratulations!
You are the grand prize winner of an Olympus Prize pack consisting of an African Photo Safari adventure for two and your very own ---

DELETE.

I read as far as "grand prize" and "Africa". That's all I needed to know that someone was trying to set me up for a scam. I deleted the email and never thought about it again.

I consider myself pretty Net-savvy. I have a small Twitter following. I have a Facebook page. I dove into the whole Internet thang back in the mid-90s when we had to write the code to create our webpages. So I sure as hell wasn't going to be taken in by some Nigerian/African scam out for my money.

TWO WEEKS LATER --
Another email arrives.

Re: Congrats from Olympus Canada

Hi Kevin,
We are eager to award you your grand prize from Olympus.

This scammer was persistent. Okay so this time I actually read the entire email. It mentioned an in-store touch screen contest I'd entered. That triggered a Lost-style flashback. WHOOOOOSH.

Some time in August, my 4 year old daughter and I were shopping for a pocket camera to supplement my DSLR. We picked something simple (not an Olympus) and went to pay for it. While we waited to pay, my daughter spotted a touch-screen display and wanted to check it out. I showed her how it worked, typed in my details and officially entered. I noticed two things while entering: a nicer camera than what I was buying, and pictures of lions.

Two months later -- I was sitting at my computer realizing that I maybe, just might have, possibly, hard to know for sure, could have won the grand prize. And the final words of this new email were staring me down:

...We will reach out one final time... after which we will redraw for another winner.

Holy crap. I fired off a reply with my phone number and waited anxiously for a reply. 15 minutes later, I was on the phone with the contest reps and it was all confirmed. The prize was mine.

I went home and gave my little daughter a big kiss. Then my wife and I started fantasizing the possibilities for Africa. And that's what this blog is for. Follow along to get the inside scoop on winning a grand prize trip. I'm going to post our updates as we prepare for our September adventure into Africa.