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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 LOTTERY BOARD" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <rev.defter1970@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 10:28:48 -0700
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!YOU HAVE JUST WON $1,000,000 (ONE MILLION DOLLARS) IN YAHOO MAY PROMO

Stockport Road, Longsight, Manchester
M60 2DB - United Kingdom

================================================
ELECTRONIC MAIL AWARD WINNING, NOTIFICATION AWARD PRESENTATION CENTRE: UNITED KINGDOM
We are pleased to inform you that your personal e-mail address have won a prize money of 1,000,000 U$${ ONE MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS } for the 2010 Splash Promotion which is Organized by YAHOO AWARDS & WINDOWS LIVE.
YAHOO! collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail and few from other e-mail providers. Six people are selected monthly to benefit from this promotion and you are one of the Selected Winners.I will advice you to contact me back so that i will give you the contact of the payment bank for you to contact them for the release of your winning prize.

PAYMENT OF CLAIM
Winners shall be paid in accordance with his/her Settlement Centre. Yahoo Prize Award must be claimed no later than 15 days from date of Draw Notification. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.
Stated below are your identification numbers:

BATCH NUMBER: MFI/07/APA-43658
REFERENCE NUMBER: 2010234522
PIN NUMBER: 1206

These numbers fall within the England Location file, you are requested to contact our fiduciary agent in Manchester and send your winning identification numbers to him;

AGENT INFORMATION

Agent Name: REV. DONALD DEFTER
: defter_donald@yahoo.com.au
(Tel:+447024068754
You are advised to send the following information to your Claims Agent to
facilitate the release of your fund to you.
1. Full name:
2. Country:
3. Contact Address:
4. Telephone Number:
5. fax Number:
5. Marital Status:
6. Occupation:
7. Date of birth:
7. Sex:
As soon as he receives your details, he shall commence the process that will facilitate the release of your fund to you.

Your E-mail address should be used in all correspondence with your claims Agent, please Note that, you are to contact your claims officer via email and phone as we are promoting the use of E-mail.

Congratulations!! once again.

Yours in service,
Dr. (Mrs.) Mercy Martins
[Publicity Secretary]

PAST WINNERS OF OUR PREVIOUS AWARD.

WARNING!

Do not tell people about your Prize Award until your money is successfully handed over to you to avoid disqualification that may arise from double claim.

You may also receive similar e-mails from people portraying to be other Organizations or
Yahoo Inc. This is solely to collect your personal information from you and lay claim over your winning. In event that you receive any e-mail similar to the notification letter that was sent to you, Kindly delete it from your mail box and give no further correspondence to such person or body.
Yahoo shall not be held responsible for any loss of fund arising from the above mentioned

Anti-fraud resources: