419 Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam (2006-01)com> $$ E-Millionaire Award 2010 $$0 INTO YOUR ACCOPŒë¸"

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "micro.softwindowsprizeclaimsunit@live.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
1. They don't notify winners by email.
2. You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
3. They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
4. They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
5. They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
6. They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
7. They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!

Fraud email example:

From: "The Microsoftwindows Live Inc." <microsoft@hotmail.co.uk>
Reply-To: micro.softwindowsprizeclaimsunit@live.com
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:06:45 +0800 (MYT)
Subject: Congratulations Your Email ID Has Won
=?iso-8859-1?Q?=A3650=2C000.00‏?=

The Microsoft Windows Incorporation
Croxteth Drive
Liverpool L17 1AA,
United Kingdom.

Dear Email User,

We wish to gladly inform you that your email has won a prize money of
(£650,000.00) Six Hundred and Fifty thousand,Great Britain Pounds
Sterling on our Online Monthly NCSP(NEWYEAR CRISIS SOLUTION
PROMO)programme.

Microsoft window Inc., collects all the email addresses of the people
that are active online,among the millions that subscribed to various
Hotmail,Gmail,Yahoo,aol and other internet users.

This is a programme set to encourage you to be more active online and also
to help families with the current Global crisis
allover(Europe,American,Asia and Africa),And no ticket was sold on this
promo.

These are your Winning Numbers,
Ref: XYL /26510460037/05
Batch: 24/00319/IPD
Winning number:ML/09788/60

To claim your winning prize you are to send the following information
about your self to the claims processing manager for verification &
direction.Do contact the processing manager with the below contact
information;
***************************************************************
Name:Mr. Jackson Longbottom
E-mail: micro.softwindowsprizeclaimsunit@live.com
Claims Processing Manager, Payment and Release order Department,
***************************************************************
1.FULL NAMES:
2.CONTACT ADDRESS:
3.AGE:
4.TELEPHONE NUMBER:
5.SEX:
6.OCCUPATION:
7.NATIONALITY:
8.COUNTRY:
9.HOW DO YOU FEEL AS LUCKY WINNER:
10.I____________________________ hereby declare that the above information
is true and binding on me.If at any time it is discovered that I have
given false information, I will forfeit my rights to my winnings.Be
further advised to maintain the strictest level of confidentiality until
the end of proceedings to circumvent problems associated with fraudulent
claims.This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double
claiming and unwarranted abuse of this programme.

Congratulation.s from the members of staff of the Microsoft Window
Promotion.

Ms. Susan Packson
Online co-ordinator

--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam