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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

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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:
  • "international lottery programme" (no such lottery exists)
  • "microsoft corporation word lottery" (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• 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.
  • +2348063284601 (Nigeria, prepaid 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.
  • agent_benson2004@yahoo.com

Fraud email example:

From: WIN_LOTTERY LOTTERY <win_lottery_1@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 20:52:52 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: LUCK WINNER




MOTTO: FIGHTING POVERTY ROUND THE WORLD














FROM THE DESK OF THE E-MAIL PROMOTIONS
MANAGER INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT, MICROSOFT CORPORATION WORD LOTTERY USA


Ref: 475061725
Batch: 7056490902/188
Winning no: GB8701/LPRC


WINNING NOTIFICATION

Congratulations,

We are delighted to inform you of your prize release on the 12th March, 2007 from the Microsoft International Lottery programme. Which is fully based on an electronic selection of winners using their e-mail addresses from different sites.Your email address was attached to ticket number; 17212, serial number 7741137002.This batch draws the lucky numbers of
and bonus number , which consequently won the lottery in the second category.

You hereby have been approved a lump sum pay of US$700,000 (SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) in cash credit file Ref: ILP/HW 47509/02 from the total cash prize shared amongst eight lucky winners in this category.











All participant were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually. This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by the Microsoft Co-operation World wide as part of their social responsibility for the eradication of poverty and to promote the use of internet world wide.

Further more your details (e-mail address) falls within our Africa representative office in Nigeria as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of USD$700,000 will be released to you from our regional branch office in Nigeria. We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year high stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw. Your Winning fund of USD$700.000 (SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) has been insured and locked to your account with the Paying Bank with REF NO: MSW-L/200-26937 and will be ready to be released or delivered to you when you are through with the official process involved.

It will be delivered to you by our Claim Officer in charge of Nigeria zone (REV.GERALD GOODMAN). Your E-mail address should be used in all correspondence with your claims officer, you are to contact your claims officer via email and phone call as we are promoting the use of E-mail. Also you have the right to call him to confirm your winning Details. Please note that we have instructed that you will receive your prize money in full of USD$700,000 as we have locked your prize money to your Account. Therefore you should make sure that your Account is Normalized by the Government of United Kingdom before the Release of your Prize Money to you.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE:
Simply contact our Claims Officer
Rev Gerald Goodman email agent_benson2004@yahoo.com
Phone No: +234-80632 846 01 to file for your claim .

Please make sure that you quote your reference, batch and winning numbers which can be found on the top left corner of this notification as well as your full name, address and telephone number to help locate your file easily. 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 programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel.

Note, all winnings MUST be claimed within 30 days from the date of this notification. Unclaimed funds will be returned to the national treasury for our next draw.

Congratulations once again on your winning!!!

Best Regards.



CRAIG MUNDIE
(CHIEF RESEARCH OFFICER)

Congratulations, once more from the entire Management and Staff of Microsoft Cooperation to all our lucky winners this year. Thank you for being part of this promotional lottery program. Our special thanks and gratitude to Bill Gate of Microsoft and all his Associates for alliviating poverty round the World.




Mrs. Basheera Abubakar Mrs Caro Smith)
(Pub. Secretary). ( Secretary )


LOTTERY SPONSORS: CHIEF SPONSORS;

MICROSOFT CORPORATION UK, MICROSOFT CORPORATION AFRICA,
MICROSOFT CORPORATION USA, MICROSOFT CORPORATION ASIA.

Past winners round the world with full of excitment.



Dr. P. Swier, Mr. Gerald Goodman (Manager Foreign Operations), Mr. Franklyn Van Der Weijden (Manager Domestic Finance Operations), Dr. James Williams (Director International Credit Department), Mrs. Sandra Murphy (Executive), Mr. Michael Cole (Executive), Mr. Stephen Boer (Chairman)



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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam