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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:

• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "microsoft corporation word lottery" (no such lottery exists)
  • "ms-word lotto" (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)
  • "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• 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.
  • +2348039374627 (Nigeria, prepaid mobile phone)
• 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.
  • msw_department_office@yahoo.com

Fraud email example:

From: lottery organisation <msw_lottery018_2007@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2007 05:48:25 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE WON LOTTERY PRIZE FUND (£500,000.00)




;









































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: 2007MARCHTL#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 AFRICA BEING THE HOST OF THE EVENT FOR THIS PRESENT YEAR MEGA JACKPOT LOTTO WINNING PROGRAMS HELD ON 29TH MARCH, 2007.

Your Personal E-mail address or Company email is attached to WINNER NO: 5 MARCH-2007-05MSW, 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 ofGBP £500,000.00 ( ( 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 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 in charge of African zone ( PROF.HARRY WARREN ). 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:

PROF.HARRY WARREN
(PAYMASTER)
E-MAIL : msw_department_office@yahoo.com
TEL +234-8039374627


Remember, all prize money must be claimed not later than the 30TH OCTOBER, 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 ( PROF .HARRY WARREN ).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,




Mrs. Basheera Abubakar Mrs. Caro Sandrata
(Co-ordinator). ( Secretary )



LOTTERY SPONSORS: CHIEF SPONSORS;

MICROSOFT CORPORATION UK, MICROSOFT CORPORATION AFRICA,
MICROSOFT CORPORATION USA, MICROSOFT CORPORATION ASIA.

Past winners.




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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam