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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

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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.

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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "microsoft corporation word lottery"
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "from: the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
• 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.
  • +447024078486 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
• This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
  • cash-ette@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "pastor smith" <pastorsmith-foundation@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:48:51 +0000
Subject: congratulations

.FROM: THE DESK OF THE E-MAIL PROMOTIONS MANAGER INTERNATIONAL
PROMOTIONS/PRIZE
AWARD DEPARTMENT, MICROSOFT CORPORATION WORD LOTTERY
UNITED KINGDOM.61-70 Southampton Row,
Bloomsbury London United Kingdom WC1B 4AR.
REFERENCE NO: MSW-L/200-26937
BATCH NO: 2007AprilL#22
WINNER NO: 5
ELECTRONIC MAIL AWARD WINNING NOTIFICATION
AWARD PRESENTATION CENTER: UNITED KINGDOM


WINNING NOTIFICATION !

Dear Sir/ Madam,
We the MICROSOFT COOPERATION MANAGEMENT WORLDWIDE are pleased to inform you
of
the today's
winners of our annual MS-WORD LOTTO LOTTERY conducted in london BEING THE
HOST
OF THE EVENT FOR
THIS PRESENT YEAR MEGA JACKPOT LOTTO WINNING PROGRAMS HELD ON 11th
April 2007.
Your Personal E-mail address or Company email is attached to WINNER NO:5
MSW, with serial number S/N-00168 drew the lucky numbers
887-13-865-37-10-83,
and consequently
won in the first lottery category. You have therefore been approved for lump
sums pay of GBP
£5,500,000.00 ( (Five Million, Five hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling) in
cash
Credited to file
REF NO:MSW-L/200-26937 this is from total prize money of GBP 27,500,000.00
POUNDS, shared among
the Twenty-five (25) lucky international winners in first and second
category.
All participants were selected from Worldwide Websites especially yahoo mail
and hotmail
through our
Microsoft computer ballot system drawn from 21,000 Names, 3,000 names from
each
continent
(Canada, Asia, Australia, United state, Europe, Middle East, Africa and
Oceania
, as part of
International "E-MAIL" Promotions Program, Which is conducted annually for
our
prominent MS -
WORD users all over the world, and to encourage the use of Internet and
Computers worldwide.
Your fund (certified cheque) has been insured with your REF NO:
MSW-L/200-26937
and will be
ready for delivery. It will be delivered to you by one of our Paymaster
Staff.
Your E-mail
address should be used in all correspondence with your claims officer,
please
Note that, you are
to contact your claims officer via email and phone as we are promoting the
use
of E-mail. Also
you have the right to call him to confirm your winnings and government tax
payment that is all,
as he will provide you with the necessary details on how to claim Your
prize.
You are to keep your ref. number and batch number from the public, until you
have been processed
and your prize money delivered to you. This is part of our security protocol
to
avoid double
claiming and the act of scamming people of their ref number and prizes. We
hope
with a part of
your prize, you will participate in our next year High stakes of
US$0.3billion
International
Lottery. To claim your winning prize, you must first contact our African
claims
department by
email for Processing and remittance of your prize money to you.
THE PAYMASTER OFFICER CONTACT EMAIL IS:
Mr smith
(PAYMASTER)
cash-ette@hotmail.com
TELL: +447024078486

Remember, all prize money must be claimed not later than the 18th April
0f
2007. All funds
not Claimed on or before the fixed date will be returned as Unclaimed and
donated to charity
organization in Africa.
NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please
remember to
quote your
reference and batch numbers in all correspondences with your claims officer.
Do
not reply any
other mails like this on net, as they are a lot of scam artist out there
pretending to be us.
You may see mails like this do not reply. Do contact your claims officer .At
once you will be asked to provide some details to enable the office proceed
with
your winning
certificate and file keeping.
Congratulations, once more from the entire Management and Staff of Microsoft
Cooperation to all
our lucky winners this year. Thank you for being part of this promotional
lottery program. Our
special thanks and gratitude to Bill Gate of Microsoft and all his
Associates
for alliviating
poverty round the World.

Sincerely,
Smith

_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam