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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: "Yahoo! Account Service" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <verify_address_member@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:20:22 +0200
Subject: YAHOO ALERT

Dear Valued Member,

 
 Due to the congestion in all Yahoo users and removal of all unused Yahoo Accounts,Yahoo would be shutting down all unused Accounts,You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your login info below after clicking the reply botton or your Account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.
 
YAHOO ACCOUNT VERIFICATION ALERT !!! (KMM69467VL055834KM)
 
Due to the congestion in all Yahoo Accounts, Yahoo would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.
 
Yahoo! ID Card
 

Name:.................. ....... .............................. ....

 

Yahoo! ID:....................... .... ........................

Yahoo! Mail ......... ........ ............ .

Password:............... ........................ ...... .......

 
Member Information

                                       Gender:................. .............................. .........  

                                       Birthdate:.......... ............................

                                       Occupation:........... ........ .............................. ..  

                                       Country:................... ... ........ .............................. .....

If you are a Yahoo! Account Premium subscriber, your current subscription will be canceled on september 29 2009 if you refuse to update your account. We will refund the unused portion of your Premium subscription, if any. The refund will appear as a credit via the billing method we have on file for you. So please make sure that your billing information is correct and up-to-date. For more information, please visit https://billing.yahoo.com.


After following the instruction on this sheet your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal
We appreciate your being a Yahoo! Account user.

Sincerely,

Yahoo! Customer Support


Please reply to this message. This is a service related to your use of Yahoo! Mail. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of Web beacons in HTML-based email, visit Yahoo home page. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089.

Anti-fraud resources: