419 scam: Yahoo Microsoft Award Promotion <uckanmedikal@superonline.com> YOU HAVE WON 500,000 POUNDS

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
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.
- +447024062856 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: Yahoo Microsoft Award Promotion <uckanmedikal@superonline.com>
Reply-To: msnclaimsdeptss@live.com
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:23:42 +0300 (EEST)
Subject: YOU HAVE WON 500,000 POUNDS

!!!CONGRATULATIONS !!!!
YOU HAVE WON 500,000 POUNDS
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.
These are your Winning Information and Identification Numbers:
Batch number.....................YM 09102XN
Ref number........................YM35447XN
Winning number...................YM09788
To begin your claims, kindly contact the events manager
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
(CONTACT EVENTS MANAGER)
Name:Mr Neville Charles
EMAIL:msnclaimsdeptss@live.com
PHONE: +447024062856, +447031940553
(CALL AS IT IS, DON'T ADD OR REMOVE ANY NUMBER)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
You are required to forward your winning details via the above e-mail
addresses.And note that you must send your information to the above
offices for verification purposes.
1. FULL NAME.................2. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN...............3. PRESENT
ADDRESS.............
4. AGE...............5. OCCUPATION..............6. SEX...........................
7. TELEPHONE NUMBER...........8. MARITAL STATUS..............9. BATCH
NUMBER...................
10. WINNING NUMBER..............11. REFERENCE
NUMBER.............. ...............
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs kelive snook
Microsoft Award Promotion Coordinator).

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam