419 scam: "You won $550,000,00! Yahoo! Mail congratulates you!"<mranthonywilliams1@att.net> You won $550,000,00! Yahoo! Mail congratulates you!

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
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.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
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.
- drlarrymoore@superposta.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "You won $550,000,00! Yahoo! Mail congratulates you!" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <drlarrymoore@superposta.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:19:12 +0430
Subject: You won $550,000,00! Yahoo! Mail congratulates you!

You won $550,000,00! Yahoo! Mail congratulates you!
Messenger

You won $550,000,00!
Friday, July 29th 2011

Dear Lucky Winner,

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Five Hundred and Fifty Thousand UDS($550,000) for the Prize promotion which is organized by YAHOO AWARDS & WINDOWS LIVE. Yahoo selected all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo, Msn, Gmail, Hotmail, Juno, Aol, superposta.com,yahoo.com,att.net,roger,mail.mn ,Comcast,sbcglogbal,earthlink,verizon,bellsouth and few from other private/companies e-mail providers. Ten (10) people are selected quartely to benefit from this promotion and you are one of the Selected Winners.

PAYMENT OF PRIZE / CLAIMS

Winners shall be paid in accordance with their Settlement Centres. Yahoo Prize Award must be claimed not later than 10 days from date of Draw Notification. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited and returned to its source as unclaimed.

Stated below are your identification numbers:

BATCH NUMBER: ............MFI/06/APA-43658
REFERENCE NUMBER: ........... 2007234522
PIN: ............ 1207

You are expected to contact your Claim Agent Dr. larry Moore Via E-mail: drlarrymoore@superposta.com

and send your winning identification numbers with the following informations as to enable your Claim Agent, Dr. Larry Moore,facilitate the release of your fund to you.

1. Full Name......................
2. Country..........................
3. Contact Address.............
4. Telephone Number.........
5. Fax Number....................
5. Marital Status..................
6. Occupation......................
7. Sex..................................
8. Date of Birth/Age ..............................
9. Identity card(carte identite) If any ......

Congratulations! once again.

Yours in service,
Mr.Anthony Williams
SECRETARY TO THE CO-ORDINATOR)
------------------------------------------------------
WARNING!
You must keep strict confidentiality of your Prize Award claims to yourself until your money is successfully handed over to you inother to avoid disqualification that may arise from double claims. Yahoo Awards Team shall not be held liable for any loss of funds arising from the above mentioned.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam