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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
• "Is that email a scam?" - Check it online here!
  
• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • ",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)
  • "00,000.00" (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.
  • +447045743006 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: MICROSOFT/YAHOO LOTTERY <microswxpyy1@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <williams_claimprocessor@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2008 04:55:21 -0900
Subject: Congratulations you are a winner













MICROSOFT INC/ YAHOO INC
UNITED KINGDOM.
Southampton Row, Bloomsbury.



London WC1B 4AR
REF NO: MSW/YAH/56L/07/672 WIN NO:MSW/YAH/56L/34524232.

End of the year Electronic Email Award Winning Notification Award Presentation Center


This is to inform you of the release of email balloting held on the 1st january 2008, by the MICROSOFT CORPORATION IN CONJUNCTION WITH YAHOO BETA on it's end of the year lottery for customer appreciation and a way of saying happy new year to our product users.

For the first time ever THE MICROSOFT CORPORATION , AOL AND YAHOO COMPANY have decided to reward their customers by awarding £2,000,000.00 (Two million Great British Pounds Sterling) each to 10 lucky winners who were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from only Microsoft users from over 30,000 000 companies and 500,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world.

This promotion is organized by MICROSOFT/ YAHOO Ireland and MICROSOFT/AOL/YAHOO London. However, the results were released on 3rd January 2008 and your email was among the 10 Lucky winners who won £2,000,000.00 each on the end of the year lottery for customers and Internet users of MICROSOFT CORPORATION/ AOL/YAHOO UNITED KINGDOM. ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANYS I SAY CONGRATULTIONS.

You have been approved for lump sums pay out of £2,000,000.00 GBP (Two million Great British Pounds Sterling) in cash/cheque Credited to file REF NO: MSW/YAH/56L/07/672 and winning number MSW/YAH/56L/07/34524232. Selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ) from a database of over 500,000,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world.
The online draws were conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 500,000,000. E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the Internet. No tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy.
This is to encourage our prominent MICROSOFT/YAHOO Users all over the world.

Your fund (Certified Cashiers Cheque) has been insured with your REF NO: MSW/YAH/56L/07/672 and email winning number MSW/YAH/56L/34524232.

To claim your winning prize, you must first contact the claims department by email for Processing and remittance of your prize to you and also call for acknowledgement of email receipt.

Mr. James Williams.
+447045743006
+447045756005MICROSOFT/YAHOO fiduciary agent
E MAIL: williams_claimprocessor@aol.in


You are advised to contact your fiduciary agent with the following details to avoid unnecessary delays and complications:

Verification and funds release form.1.Full name:
2.Address:3.Sex:4.AGE:
5.Marital status:6.Occupation:7.Aternative e-mail address:
8.Phone number: 9.Country/nationality:10.How do you feel as a winner?
11. Your ref no/ winning no/:

Congratulation once more

Sincerely,
Mr. Donald Richard
ONLINE COORDINATOR.
________________________________________________________________________________
You are not to reply to this mail directly, as you are to contact the claims Department to avoid delay
_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam