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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 - Microsoft Online Draw" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ymasiacoordinator@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:46:28 +0530
Subject: Congratulations. You have won!

Dear Winner,

Yahoo Incorporated in conjunction with Microsoft Corporation wish to congratulate you over your email address's success in this 2010 development fund. Your email address emerged as one of the forty five final recipients of a cash grant/donation of US$380,000 to salvage your finances and to develop your community in this new year. This cash grant is a gift and you will never be required to pay it back.

This financial bailout plan is funded the United Nations and other Economic Development Organizations and Regional Unions which include the African Union (AU), Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), European Union (EU), Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), North American Union (NAU) etc in an effort to reduce the impact of food and financial crisis around the world. The leaders of these organizations and Unions met in the 2010 Development Summit in New York, United States of America and made donations for this programme. Yahoo and Microsoft were engaged to carry out the task of conducting the email balloting and to subsequently pay winners.

This is the first time this program is taking place. Note that all participant's email addresses were selected randomly from all countries of the world through a random sampling and your email address is attached to file reference number (YM-21-1-1) that emerged as one of the lucky numbers that won the sum of three hundred and eighty thousand U.S. Dollars (US$380,000).

Our method of payment is through the issuance of a bank draft that can be cashed in any of the international banks in your country. Your payment falls within our representative office and it is from there you will make your claim. To file for your claim, please contact our coordinator, Mr. Fred Richardson, on this email: ymasiacoordinator@yahoo.co.jp . Provide him with the below details to enable him verify and issue you the bank draft:

Full Names:
Residential/Official Address: (Not P. O. Box)
City:
State:
Postal Code:
Country:
Winning Email Address:
Telephone Number:
Occupation:
Age:
Sex:

The above information is to be emailed to our coordinator, on the above given email, who is responsible to pay you. As a security measure, you are asked to keep your winning information confidential until you have made your claim. This is mainly to avoid putting up a double claim with your winning information which will result to the cancellation of your cash grant. On behalf of myself and all staff of Yahoo Incorporated and Microsoft Corporation, I say congratulations once again.

Your sincerely,
Mr. David Williams.
(President: Yahoo - Microsoft Online Draw)

Anti-fraud resources: