419 scam: Yahoo Lottery Organization <bi---ou@att.net> CONGRATULATIONS!!!

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
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:
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million united states dollars" (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)
- ",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.
- +66800750993 (Thailand, probably a mobile phone)
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.
- k_iva.cordinator@yahoo.co.th (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Yahoo Lottery Organization <bi---ou@att.net>
Reply-To: poi_koi59@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:43:28 -0800 (PST)
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!


                      YAHOO
INTERNET LOTTERY


CONGRATULATIONS!

Yahoo! Mail announces you as one of the 10 lucky winners in
the ongoing Year's Yahoo lottery Award of the Year held on the
7th of January, 2011.

All 10 winning email addresses were
randomly selected from a batch of 50,000,000 international emails each from
Canada. Australia. United State, Asia. Europe. Middle East, Africa and
Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted
annually, consequently, you have been approved for a total pay out of ONE
MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS ( $1000.000 .00)

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

Furthermore your
details (e-mail address) falls within our Asia representative office in Bangkok
Thailand as indicated in your
play coupon and your prize of (1,000,000.00) will be released to you from this
regional branch office in
Bangkok.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR
PRIZE
these are your identification
numbers.
Batch
number:.............................EGS/
22504002/03
Reference number:..........
N.EGS/3662367114/13.
Lucky
numbers................... 9-13-21-30-31-44,

NOTE THIS:

Yahoo!'s Agent
for Notice of claims of copyright or other intellectual property infringement
can be reached as follows:
As part of our
security protocol you are to quote this security code to your claim agent. This
is to prevent scam
YLAW/AUG/XX11

Email:k_iva.cordinator@yahoo.co.th
Contact Person: Mr. Kane
Iva
Tel:
+66800750993

Telephone lines are open between the hours of

9:00am-19:30pm.Monday
-Saturday.

You are to send the completed verification form
below to the Agent in the Bangkok Thailand whose email address is given above so
that you will be advised on what to do to get your prize money. Congratulations
once more!!

1. FULL NAME
2. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
3. PRESENT ADDRESS.
4. DATE OF BIRTH
5. OCCUPATION
6. TELEPHONE NUMBER
6. FAX NUMBER
7. MARITAL STATUS
8. SECURITY CODE
9. WINNING
NUMBER, BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER.

For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep
this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and
your prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid
double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this program by non-selected
winner or unofficial personnel.

Yours
Sincerely,

Dr. Raymond Hisashi
Vice President
Yahoo! Lotto Org.

Mrs Tina Akira
President Yahoo! Lotto Org.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam