419 scam: "Messenger Yahoo! Lottery"<news@yahoo-lottery.com> Messenger Yahoo! Announcement

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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.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "hundred thousand great british pounds" (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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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!
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.
- contact.sharongray@rocketmail.com (Rocketmail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)

Fraud email example:

From: "Messenger Yahoo! Lottery" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <contact.sharongray@rocketmail.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 22:35:27 +0530
Subject: Messenger Yahoo! Announcement

Messenger Yahoo! Lottery Results You won £800.000! Yahoo! Mail congratulates
you!

Yahoo! Mail announce you as one of the 10 lucky winners in the ongoing Yahoo
Lottery Draw.
All 10 winning email addresses were randomly selected from a batch of
50,000,000 international emails each from Canada , Australia , United States ,
Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international
promotions program which is conducted annually,consequently, you have been
approved for a total pay out of 800,000.00 GBP (EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND GREAT
BRITISH POUNDS STERLING ).

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.
Further more your details(e-mail address) falls within our British
representative office in United Kingdom , as indicated in your play coupon and
your prize of 800,000.00 GBP will be released to you from this regional branch
office in UK.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE
These are your identification numbers.......................
Batch number.....................Lwh 09445
Lotto number.......................Lwh09446
Winning number...................Lwh09447

Yahoo!'s Agent for Notice of claims of copyright or other intellectual property
infringement can be reached as follows:
FIDUCIARY AGENT Email: contact.sharongray@rocketmail.com
You are to send the completed verification form below to the our Agent in the
United Kingdom whose email address is given above so that you will be advised
on what to do to get your prize money. Congratulations once more!!

1. FULL NAME
2. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
3. PRESENT ADRESS.
4. DATE OF BIRTH
5. OCCUPATION
6. TELEPHONE NUMBER
6. FAX NUMBER (IF ANY)
7. MARITAL STATUS
8. WINNING NUMBER, BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER.

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-
selected winner or unofficial personnel.

Yours Sincerely,
Mrs Sharon Gray
The Yahoo.com staff

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam