419 scam: "Yahoomail Help Desk"<alert@webmaster.com> Dear Subscriber

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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.
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Yahoomail Help Desk" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <webhelpdesk@discuz.org>
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 19:18:29 +0100
Subject: Dear Subscriber

Dear Subscriber,

This message was sent automatically by a program on Webmail which
periodically checks the size of inboxes, where new messages are
received.

The program is run weekly to ensure no one's inbox grows too large.
If your inbox becomes too large, you will be unable to receive new
email. Just before this message was sent, you had 18 Megabytes (MB)
or more of messages stored in your inbox on your Webmail. To help
us re-set your SPACE on our database prior to maintain your INBOX,
you must reply to this e-mail and enter your

Current User name ( )
and Password( ).

You will continue to receive this warning message periodically if
your inbox size continues to be between 18 and 20 MB. If your
inbox size grows to 20 MB, then a program on Bates Webmail will
move your oldest email to a folder in your home directory to ensur
that you will continue to be able to receive incoming email. You
will be notified by email that this has taken place. If your inbox
grows to 25 MB, you will be unable to receive new
email as it will be returned to the sender.

After you read a message, it is best to REPLY and SAVE it to
another folder.

Thank you for your cooperation.
Webmail Help Desk

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam