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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
• "Is that email a scam?" - Check it online here!
  
• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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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.

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:

• 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)
• 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!

Fraud email example:

From: BROWN PATERSON <mail.patersonbrown@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 18:36:22 +0100 (BST)
Subject: TREAT AS UREGENT.


Microsoft Promotion Award Team,
Windows House,
4 Trent Road Sutton,
Greater. London SM1 4TE,
United Kingdom.

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Five hundred thousand, Great Britain Pound Sterlings(£500,000.00) for the month of AUGUST 2007 Lottery promotion which is organized by MICROSOFT LOTTERY INC & WINDOWS LIVE.
MICROSOFT WINDOWS collects all the email addresses of the a people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed toINTERNET we only select five people every Month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying,we congratulate you for being one of the people selected.
This Microsoft Award Team WINNINGS PROGRAMS is approved by the Microsoft award team and also Licensed by the The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR). The Microsft Award Team UK (MAT) was set up by Parliament in 1994 to give grants to a wide range of projects involving the local, regional and national heritage of the United Kingdom .

Contact him, please provide him with your batch number BATCH:
YM09102XM and your reference number REF NO: YM35447XM
You are also advised to provide him with the under listed
information as soon as possible:

Claims Requirements:
1.Name in full---------------------------------------
2.Address-------------------------------------------
3.Nationality-----------------------------------------
4.Age------------------------------------------------
5. Sex ------------------------------------------------
6.Occupation-----------------------------------------
7.Phone/Fax------------------------------------------
8.Present Country-------------------------------------
9.Email Adress---------------------------------------
10. Batch And Reff Number--------------------------

Congratulations once more.

Faithfully,
Mr Jason Smith.
Zone Co-ordinator.
Copyright © 2007 microsoft award promo. All rights reserved.


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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam