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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
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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:

• 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" (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "hundred thousand united states dollars" (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 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.
  • margeretbenson1@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
  • liliansmith00@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Jan Maierle <mmejan@y7mail.com>
Reply-To: margeretbenson1@gmail.com
Date: 26 Jun 2008 18:56:36 -0000
Subject: 61-70 Southampton Row, Bloomsbury,

Content-Type: text/plain

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit




MICROSOFT INTERNET PROMOTION

61-70 Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, NEWYORK, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WC1B 4AR.

Ref: BTD/968/05

Batch:409978E WINNER NO: 7



CONGRATULATION! CONGRATULATION!! CONGRATULATION!!!



Dear Winner,



The prestigious MICROSOFT and AOL has set out and successfully organised a Sweepstakes marking the year 2007 anniversary. Rolled out over $100,000.00 for our this year Anniversary Draws. Participants for the draws were randomly selected from the account users and drawn from a wide range of web hosts which we enjoy their patronage. The selection was made through a computer draw system attaching personalised email addresses to ticket numbers. MICROSOFT and AOL are now the largest Internet companies & in effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, MICROSOFT and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.



Your email address have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of ($100.000.00) One Hundred Thousand United States Dollars.This is from a total cash prize of Two Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($2.500,000.00) shared among the first 25 lucky winners in this category world-wide. Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our lottery booklet representative office in United States of America as indicated in the play coupon.



The draws registered as Draw number one was conducted in New York, United States of America on the 20th of November 2007. Be informed by this winning notification to file your claims immediately.You are advised to make contact to your referred agent who shall by duty guide you through the process to facilitate the release of your winning prize. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims are processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements.



To file for your claim, please contact your Claiming Agent immediately.



CLAIMS AGENT

Mrs.Margeret Benson

EMAIL: margeretbenson1@gmail.com



We dedicate our special thanks & gratitude to Bill Gates and his associates.We wish you the best of luck as you spend your good fortune in this season. KINDLY CONTACT YOUR CLAIM AGENT DIRECTLY ON liliansmith00@gmail.com FOR FURTHER DIRECTIVES. Microsoft Lottery Promotion 2007



Jan Maierle

Co-ordinator MICROSOFT LOTTERY PROMOTION 2007



Microsoft has obtained your contact details from public internet sources. We thought that you could be attracted to be part of this promotion with our company© Copyright 2007 Microsoft Lottery promotion All Right Reserve"

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam