419 scam: "MSN Award Centre"<support0011@live.com> Congratulations! MSN Award Winner!!!

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

Home

About Us

Spam

419/Nigeria

Fraud

Contact

"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:
- ",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.
- +447035991970 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- +448704951660 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
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.
- msn.support01@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "MSN Award Centre" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <druv.martindale@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 23:46:00 -0000
Subject: Congratulations! MSN Award Winner!!!

MSN AWARD CENTRE.
206 Southampton Row, Bloomsbury
London United Kingdom WC 1B 4AR.
Tel: +44 703 599 1970
Fax: +44 870 495 1660

Dear Prize winner,

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Two Hundred & Fifty Thousand Great Britain Pounds (?250,000.00 GBP) in our monthly email award winning promotion
which was organized by MSN, which was conducted today.

This is from the total prize money of ?250,000,000.00 GBP which is to be shared among the Twenty award winners in 2nd categories. All participants in this Award promotion
were selected randomly through our MSN Computer Ballot System, drawn from 65,000,000 email addresses from all search engines. Your e-mail address was picked by the
automated MSN Computer Ballot System, which has been programed for this random selection.

This has eventually qualified you for the Winning. This promotional program is promoted and sponsored by MSN Company, eminent personalities of Hotmail and MSN users,
with the support of The British/European corporate companies and organizations to encourage the use of Internet and computers worldwide.

Stated below are your identification numbers:

Ref Code: MSN428A2011
File Number: MN0907

Hence you are requested to contact Our Co-ordinator in Manchester and send your winning identification numbers to him through the below details:

Co-ordinator`s Name: Dr. Ben Carter
Email: msn.support01@hotmail.com
Tel: +447035991970
Fax: +448704956127

You are also advised to send the following information to our co-ordinator to facilitate the release of your fund to you.

(1) Full Name
(2) Nationality
(3) Contact Address
(4) Home/Moblie Phone
(5) Date Of Birth
(6) Occupation
(7) Sex
(8) Reference and Batch numbers

Congratulations! Once More.

Best Regards,
Robert Montaomery

======================================================================================================================================
======================================================================================================================================
==============================================

Note that all prize money must be claimed not later than one month of notification. All funds not Claimed on or before the fixed date will be returned as Unclaimed Prize and please be aware
that our Paying Authority will Effect Payment Swiftly upon satisfactory Report, Verifications and validation provided by our co-ordinator.

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, Please remember to quote your Reference and File numbers in all correspondences with our co-ordinator.

©2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam