Bet on this:Microsoft, Yahoo!, the African Development Bank and Western Union have formed a coalition to raise global awareness among consumers of the threat posed by hoax lottery e-mails. The coalition is to try and educate internet users so they are better able to protect themselves against fraudulent activities online. The announcement coincides with the release of research commissioned by Microsoft showing that 27 per cent of net users thought it likely they would become a victim of an internet lottery scam. More than half said lottery scam e-mails made them more reluctant to buy goods from the internet.