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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:

Fraud email example:

From: MICROSOFT LOTTO <miraholot@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:36:57 +0100
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE WON


































CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! YAHOO LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS ($300,000.00) for the YEAR 2007 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO LOTTERY INC for the introduction of the new YAHOO BETA MAIL which all YAHOO users are required to switch onto. YAHOO! & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, arrange and gather all the e-mail addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail, and others we only select TWENTY (20) candidates per annually as our winners through Electronic Balloting System (EBS) without the candidate applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected.

PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
We are sorry that your Payment Approval File was sent to Africa so that you can be cleared and paid simultaneously there. You are to contact our UK Agent to give you more details for the collection of your winning fund.
Yahoo Beta Lottery Prize must be claimed not later than 14 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won.
Note. You are to bear the cost of recieving your prize fund in any option you chosed of recieving your fund.

These are your identification numbers:

Batch number.....................YBM-EBS-390AF Reff number........................YBM-EBS-719AF Winning number...............YBM-EBS-798AF


To claim your prize money,you are required from the UK Agent Dr.Brown Williams with your Batch number,Reff number,Winning number through his email below.

AGENT:Dr.Brown Williams
E-MAIL: drbrownwilliams@praize.com
CONTACT PHONE: +447-0318-50423.

You are therefore advised to send the following information to him to facilitate them and process the transfer of your fund with the appointed paying bank in Africa.

Send your Identification Numbers/Your Personal Information to him immediately:

Personal Information
1. Full name..................
2. Country.................... 3. Contact Address........... 4. Telephone Number......... 5. Marital Status.............. 6. Occupation.................. 7. Age.........................
8. Sex.........................
Congratulations once again. Yours in service,







We hope you're enjoying your new Yahoo! Mail account.
Now take the next step and claim your money and say thanks to Yahoo!.
You select how to transfer the prize money to you:




Cheque Delivery To Your Address


Bank Account Transfer



Electronic Money Transfer









See what's happening on Yahoo.com today. Do you Yahoo!?

If you have questions or wish to claim your prize money kindly contact this email, see the instructions
_________________________________________________________________
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