419 scam: YAHOO! LOTTERY <grace_adamms10@yahoo.com.cn> ***Yahoo Congratulate You For Being Their Lucky Winner In June 2010***N UNITyment.0PŒë¸"

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "fiduciary agent" (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 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.
- fiduciary_agent2010@yahoo.com.cn (Yahoo, China; can be used from anywhere worldwide)

Fraud email example:

From: YAHOO! LOTTERY <grace_adamms10@yahoo.com.cn>
Reply-To: fiduciary_agent2@yahoo.com.cn
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:28:33 +0800 (CST)
Subject: ***Yahoo Congratulate You For Being Their Lucky Winner In June 2010***

You won £300 000! Yahoo! Mail congratulates you!

Messenger

CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU WON £300 000!

Yahoo! Mail gives members random cash prizes. Today, your account is randomly selected as the one of 5 top winners accounts who will get cash prizes from us. We are happy to inform you that you have won a prize money of (Three Hundred Thousand Great Britian Pounds sterling (£300,000) for the month of June 2010. Lottery win promotion which is organized by yahoo messenger .com every month.

YAHOO!, collects all the mail ID of the people that are online on yahoo messenger, among the millions that subscribe to yahoo messenger we only select five people every month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying,we are congratulating you for been one of the people selected.

All participant were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually.

This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomorate of some multinational companies as part of their social responsibility to the citizens in the commmunities where they have operational base.

Further more your details(e-mail address) falls within our British representative office in United Kingdom , as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of £300,000 will be released to you from this regional branch office in UK.

We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year high stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE:
These are your identification numbers..........
Batch number.......................Lwh 09445
Lotto number........................Lwh09446
Winning number...................Lwh09447

To begin your claims, kindly contact our fiduciary agent ( Mary Nicholas) at this email address: fiduciary_agent2010@yahoo.com.cn

You are required to forward her with the following details:

1.FULL NAME :
2.COUNTRY OF ORIGIN :
3.PRESENT ADDRESS :
4.SEX :
5.DATE OF BIRTH :
6.AGE :
7.OCCUPATION :
8.TELEPHONE NUMBER :
9.FAX NUMBER(IF ANY) :
10.MARITAL STATUS :
11.WINNING NUMBER,BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER :

12 THE MONTH YOU WON :

As soon as you contact the her,she will advise you on what to do in order to get your prize money.
Congratulations once more!!

Yours Sincerely,

John Williams
LOTTO CO-ORDINATOR.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam