419 scam: MICROSOFT TEAM <microsoftlottery_2006@yahoo.co.uk> CONGRATULATION!!!

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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.
The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "microsoft lottery"
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "foreign service manager" (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 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.
- microsoftlottery_2006@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: MICROSOFT TEAM <microsoftlottery_2006@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: 29 Dec 2006 05:59:53 +0100
Subject: CONGRATULATION!!!

Content-Type: text/html
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2873" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#3300cc size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial
color=#333399><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black">
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=577 border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=top width=104 colSpan=2 rowSpan=3><STRONG><FONT face=Courier
color=#000099><IMG
src="http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/i/results/lotto_header_enter_numbers.gif"></FONT></STRONG></TD>
<TD width=463 height=14><STRONG><FONT face=Courier color=#000099><IMG
height=14 alt="" src="http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/i/s.gif"
width=463></FONT></STRONG></TD>
<TD width=10 colSpan=2 rowSpan=3><STRONG><FONT face=Courier
color=#000099><IMG
src="http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/i/results/lotto_right.gif"></FONT></STRONG></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD bgColor=#ff0000 height=25><STRONG><FONT face=Courier
color=#000099><IMG height=25 alt=""
src="http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/i/s.gif"
width=1></FONT></STRONG></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD height=8><STRONG><FONT face=Courier color=#000099><IMG height=4 alt=""
src="http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/i/s.gif"
width=1></FONT></STRONG></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD width=2 bgColor=#ff0000><STRONG><FONT face=Courier color=#000099><IMG
height=1 alt="" src="http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/i/s.gif"
width=2></FONT></STRONG></TD>
<TD colSpan=3><STRONG><FONT color=#000099><FONT face=Courier><IMG
height=10 alt="" src="http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/i/s.gif"
width=1></FONT></FONT></STRONG></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#3300cc size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial
color=#333399><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><IMG
style="WIDTH: 478px; HEIGHT: 50px" height=50 alt=Microsoft
src="http://i2.microsoft.com/h/all/i/ms_masthead_8x6a_ltr.jpg" width=322
border=0></SPAN></FONT> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV></SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=#3300cc size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><STRONG>OVERSEAS SUBSCRIBERS AGENTS<BR>NEW
YEAR PROMOTION 2006</STRONG></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#3300cc size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"></SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#3300cc
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><FONT face=Arial>20 Howard
Barking London, 7UA11G<BR>UNITED KINGDOM</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#3300cc
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><FONT
face=Arial><BR><STRONG>(Customer's Service
Center)</STRONG></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3300cc size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"></SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#3300cc
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><FONT face=Arial color=#3300cc
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><STRONG>Promoter:
Microsoft®<BR></STRONG></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV><FONT color=#3300cc
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black">
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV class=RTE>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#333399 size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><STRONG>EMAIL LOTTERY
PROMOTION</STRONG></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#333399 size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"></SPAN></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#333399 size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black">Ref: EAASL/941OYI/02/SHYN<BR>Batch:
12/25/0034</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#333399 size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"></SPAN></SPAN></FONT> </DIV><FONT
face=Arial color=#333399 size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black">
<DIV
align=left>
WINNING NOTIFICATION</DIV>
<DIV align=left>Dear Mr/Mrs/Sir/Madam:<BR>This is to inform you that your email
address has won the Microsoft E-mail lottery which was held last
week.   your email with serial number 5388/02 and ticket number564
75600545 188    hit the jackpot .<BR> <BR>All participants
for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through
computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations, and
corporate bodies that are listed online. This promotion takes place weekly.
<BR>You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £, 500,000 (Five
Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds, ) in cash credited to file
KPC/9080118308/02/SHYN. This is from a total cash prize of £1,500,000 pounds
shared among the first{ 3 } lucky winners in this category<BR>For security
reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your
claims is processed and your money remitted to you in what ever manner you deem
fit to claim your prize.This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid
double claiming and unwarranted abuse of   this Microsoft
program. Please be warned.</DIV>
<DIV align=left>To file for your claim, please contact our claims
Agent:<BR>,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,</DIV>
<DIV align=left>Mr.Micheal Adams,<BR>FOREIGN SERVICE MANAGER,<BR>Maximum
Security Trust & Ace Finance
Int'<BR><BR>Email:microsoftlottery_2006@yahoo.co.uk
<BR>,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,</DIV>
<DIV align=left>You are required to contact the office with the following:<BR>1,
Full Names<BR>2, Winning E-mail Address<BR>3, Reference Number<BR>4, Batch
Number<BR>5, Occupation<BR>6, Cell phone number<BR>7, Home phone
number<BR>8, Country Home
Address<BR>=============================================</DIV>
<DIV align=left>NOTE:You are advise to send any of the following Identities to
your claims agent via e-mail attachment or with the fax provided
below:<BR>1.Your international passport, </DIV>
<DIV align=left>2.Drivers license OR </DIV>
<DIV align=left>3.National ID Card </DIV>
<DIV align=left>For proper verification and to know if we are dealing with the
right person.<BR>Good luck from me and members of staff of the MICROSOFT
EMAIL LOTTERY.Please note, in order to avoid unnecessary delays and
complications, remember to quote your reference number and batch number in all
correspondence. Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our
agent as soon as possible.</DIV>
<DIV align=left>Congratulations from Microsoft lottery
organisation!!!      <BR></DIV>
<DIV align=left>Yours faithfully,<BR>Mrs.Terrisa Cole<BR>Lottery
Coordinator.<BR>
<BR>
(1990-2006)
<BR>           Material
Copyright © 2006 The National Lottery Co.
Ltd<BR>
<BR></DIV></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam