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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
• Support our efforts to stop scams!
  
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• What can you do when you receive 419 spam
  
  
• Spam archive, Daily index
  

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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "hundred thousand us 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)
• 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: Yahoo ! <danfrank-83@msn.com>
Reply-To: <mrbenbaker04@msn.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:39:08 +0000
Subject: You are a winner of yahoo lottery 2009



Messenger Yahoo! Lottery Results you won $800.000! Yahoo! Mail Congratulates
you!
Yahoo! Mail gives members random cash prizes. Today, your account is
randomly selected as the one of 5 top winners accounts
who will get cash prizes from us. We are happy to inform you that you have
won a prize money of (Eight Hundred Thousand Us Dollars ($800,000) for the
month of march, 2009. Lottery winner promotion
which is organized by yahoo messenger.com every
month.

YAHOO, collects all the mail ID of the people that are online on yahoo
messenger, among the millions that subscribe to yahoo
messenger we only select five people every month as our winners through
electronic balloting System without the winner
applying, we are congratulating you for been one of the people selected.
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 a conglomerate of some
multinational companies as part of their social
responsibility to the citizens in the communities where they have
operational base.
Furthermore your details (e-mail address) falls within our British
representative office in United Kingdom , as indicated in
your play coupon and your prize of US $800,000 will be released to you from
this regional branch office in UK. 2
We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year
high stakes for US $1.3 Billion international draw.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE
These are your identification numbers..........
Batch number.......................YHL 08992
Lotto number........................YHL 96587
Winning number...................YHL 09557
To begin your claims, kindly contact the Accounting Officer at this email
address (mrbenbaker02@msn.com) You are required to
forward him with the following details:

1. FULL NAME
2. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
3. PRESENT ADDRESS
4. SEX
5. DATE OF BIRTH
6. AGE
7. OCCUPATION
8. TELEPHONE NUMBER
9. FAX NUMBER (IF ANY)
10. MARITAL STATUS
11. WINNING NUMBER, BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER.
12 THE MONTH YOU WON.....................................................

As soon as you contact the Officer, he will advise you on what to do in
order to get your prize money. Congratulations once more!!
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.

Yours Sincerely,
Blake Jorgensen
Chief Financial Officer
The Yahoo.com staff
Yahoo.com http://www.yahoo.com
Yahoo! Lottery Results
Yahoo! Lottery is a free service that does not require you to register
or be a Yahoo!
registered user before winning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add a Yahoo! contact to Windows Live Messenger for a chance to win a free
trip

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam