419 scam: "THE MSN/YAHOO LOTTERY INCORPORATION"<fax@kkrus.com> ATTENTION EMAIL USER!!!

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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "yahoo lottery inc" (no such lottery exists)
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- ",000,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
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!
This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447024038946 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: "THE MSN/YAHOO LOTTERY INCORPORATION" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dr.stevenbriangrahams@gncn.net>
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2011 05:21:18 +0530
Subject: ATTENTION EMAIL USER!!!

YAHOO - MSN - DRAW
THE MSN/YAHOO LOTTERY INCORPORATION
PO BOX 1010,LIVERPOOL L70 INL,UNITED KINGDOM.
FROM THE DESK OF . DR. STEVEN BRIAN GRAHAM
Phone: +4470-2403-8946
+4470-1760-2490
EMAIL: dr.stevenbriangrahams@gncn.net
Date: MONTH-MAY-2011.

ATTN BENEFICIARY,
Yahoo Incorporated in conjunction 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 (1,000,000:00 GBP) 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 reference number (UK/518/181/0806) that emerged as one of the lucky EMAIL ADDRESS that won the sum of eight hundred thousand U.S. Dollars (1,000,000:00 GBP).

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 (Coordinator Yahoo-Msn Desk Draw). All you have to do now is to provide us with the information below to enable us issue you the bank draft:

-Full Names:........................ ...............
[Residential/Official Address: (Not P. O. Box) ]
-Mobile 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,
DR.STEVEN BRIAN GRAHAM
(Coordinator Yahoo-Msn Desk Draw)

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam