419 scam: "MICROSOFT PROMOTIONAL AWARD"<mspro.online@live.com> PROCESS CLAIMS.

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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "microsoft lottery" (no such lottery exists)
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- ",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.
- +447024075939 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: "MICROSOFT PROMOTIONAL AWARD" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <winningnotification.microsoft94@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 20:05:42 +0100
Subject: PROCESS CLAIMS.

Microsoft Promotion Award Team
Stamford New Road,
Altrincham Cheshire
WA14 1EP
United Kingdom.

MICROSOFT WINNING NOTIFICATION.

It is obvious that this notification will come to you as a surprise but please find time to read it carefully as we congratulate you over your success in the following official publication of results of the E-mail electronic online Sweepstakes organized by Microsoft, in conjunction with the foundation for the promotion of software products, (F.P.S.) held this month in London United Kingdom. Where your email address emerged as one of the online Winning emails in the 2nd category and therefore attracted a cash award of £2,000,000.00GBP {Two Million Great British Pounds Sterling}.

The selection process was carried out through random selection in our Computerized Email Selection System (C.E.S.S.) from a database of over a million email addresses from each continent of the world wide web drawn from all the continents of the world.

They are arranged in this format below:

CATEGORY NO.OF WINNERS WINNING PRIZES
1st. (2) 5,000.000.00 pounds each
2nd. (9) 2,000,000.00 pounds each
3rd. (13) 1,650,000.00 pounds each
4th. (27) 1,350,000.00 pounds each

We write to officially notify you of this award and to advise you to contact the processing office immediately upon receipt of this message for more information concerning the verification, processing and eventual payment of the above prize to you. It is important to note that your award information was released with the following particulars attached to it.

(1) Award numbers: MLAT#2012
(2) Email ticket numbers: 1587-5896-4598-87,
(3) Batch numbers: 850THL#2012
(4) The file reference numbers: MLY-Y/250-450890
(5) Serial Numbers: McST/776/ML10101

For verification purpose be sure to include:
VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM-:
1. Full Names:
2. Sex:
3. Age:
4. Marital Status:
5. Nationality:
6. Residential Address: :
7. Occupation:
8. Telephone Number:
9. Fax Number:
10. Have you ever won an Online Lottery ?

To file for your claim, Please contact your Validating Officer for VALIDATION of your winning within Twenty-nine working days of this winning notification. Winnings that are not validated within Twenty-nine working days of winning notification are termed void and invalid. You are required to mention the above particulars of your award in every correspondence to enable the Agent validate your winning.

***********************************************************
TO PROCESS YOUR CLIAMS DO CONTACT THE FIDUCIARY OFFICER BELOW.

FIDUCIARY/FOREIGN TRANSFER MANAGER
Mr Yo-Chang
MICROSOFT SECURITY DEPARTMENT (UK).
Email: mspro.online@cyberservices.com
Phone: +447024075939

***********************************************************
The Microsoft Internet E-mail lottery Awards is sponsored by our CEO/Chairman, Bill Gates and a consortium of software promotion companies. The Intel Group, Toshiba, Dell Computers and other International Companies. The Microsoft internet E-mail draw is held periodically and is organized to encourage the use of the Internet and promote computer literacy worldwide. The Microsoft Window lottery has discovered a huge number of double claims due to winners informing close friends relatives and third parties about their winnings and also sharing their pin numbers. As a result of this, these friends try to claim the lottery on behalf of the real winners. The Microsoft lottery has reached a decision from headquarters that any double claim discovered by the Lottery Board will result to the Canceling of that particular winning, making a loss for both the double claimer and the real winner, as it is taken that the real winner was the informer to the double claimer about the lottery. So
you are hereby strongly advised

Once again on behalf of all our staff,CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Sincerely,
Dr.Helen Gibson ,
MICROSOFT DIRECTORATE UNIT,
M.S.PRO. ZONAL COORDINATOR.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam