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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:

Fraud email example:

From: "Yahoo! Spam Service" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <summary.account@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:34:52 +0200
Subject: Yahoo! Spam Verification Alert!!!


Yahoo! Customer Care Satisfaction Survey
Dear Valued Member,
 
 
Yahoo! has upgraded there spam software in order for you to be spam free and removal of all unused Yahoo Accounts,Yahoo would be shutting down all unused Accounts and all account which have a total of 10 spam mails daily,You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your login info below or your Account will be suspended for security/spam reasons. Yahoo! users accounts,
 
 
Username:............................................
Password: .............................................
Date Of Birth: ........................................
Country Of Residence: ...........................
Occupation : .........................................
 
After you must have followed the instructions in the sheet, your Yahoo! account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thank you for your usual co-operation. We apologize for any inconvinience.
 

Yahoo! Customer Care

Case number: 8941624
Property: Account Security
Contact date: 12-30-2009

   
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This survey is being conducted by Yahoo! and hosted on Confirmit by Application Service Provider (ASP) Future Information Research Management (FIRM). FIRM does not use the information collected for any purpose. To review the FIRM privacy statement, please go to: http://www.confirmit.com/privacy-statement.aspx
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Anti-fraud resources: