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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "YAHOO-MSN-AWARDS" <prizeclaim@asiapacificlotto.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:21:08 +0700
Subject: VERY URGENT & CONFIDENTIAL !!

 
 


YAHOO - MSN  DRAW 
FROM  THE DESK OF . Mr. Steven Wills
63 Kor. Chetchamong Road, Chonburi 20000, Thailand.
FROM  THE DESK OF MR. STEVEN WILLS 
Phone:  +66-860-517-156  +66-879-185-104     
FAX: +66-231-181-42

EMAIL:  prizeclaim@asiapacificlotto. com 
                                                                                                                          Date:20-March-2010.
 
 
 
ATTN:Dear Beneficiary,
 
Yahoo Incorporated in conjuction with Microsoft Corporation (MSN)  wish to congratulate you over your EMAIL ADDRESS success in this financial bailout plan. Your EMAIL ADDRESS emerged as one of the forty five final recipients of a Cash Grant/Donation of US$800,000 to salvage your finances and to develop your community. This cash grant is a gift and you will never be required to pay it back.

This financial bailout balloting plan is funded by G8, United Nations Agencies, Economic Development Organizations and Regional Unions which include the African Union (AU), Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), European Union (EU), Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), North American Union (NAU), etc in an effort to reduce the impact of food and financial crisis around the world. The leaders of these organizations and Unions met in the G8 2009 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy and made donations for this programme. Yahoo and Msn were engaged to carry out the task of conducting the EMAIL ADDRESS balloting and to subsequently pay winners. 
 
This is the first time this program is taking place. Note that all participant's EMAIL ADDRESS were selected randomly from over 500,000 EMAIL ADDRESS companies from all countries of the world through a random sampling and your EMAIL ADDRESS is attached to file referernce number (UK/21/81/08 ) that emerged as one of the lucky EMAIL ADDRESS that won the sum of eight  hundred thousand U.S. Dollars (US$800,000).

Our method of payment is through the issuance of a bank draft that can be cashed in any of the HSBC Bank  in your country. Due to your location, you were told to contact us ( Thailand Representative Office ).  All you have to do now is to provide us with the information below to enable us issue you the bank draft:
 
-Full Names:........................ ...............
[Residentail/Official Address: (Not P. O. Box) ]
-Moblie Phone Number:....................... ...........
-City:........................ ..........................
-State:....................... .........................
-Postal Code:......................... ............ 
-Country
of Residence:.................... ....
-Nationality.................. ........................
-Winning EMAIL ADDRESS:..................
-Occupation................... .......................
-Age:......................... ..........................
-Sex:......................... .........................

As a security measure, you are asked to keep your winning information confidential until you have made your claim. This is mainly to avoid putting up double claims with your EMAIL ADDRESS and reference number which will result to the cancellation of your cash grant. On behalf of myself and all staff of Yahoo Incorporated and Microsoft Corporation, I say congratulations once again.

Your sincerely,
Mr. STEVEN WILLS
(Coordinator-Thailand Representative Office)
Yahoo - Msn Mobile Draw



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