419 scam: "WESTERN UNION"<westernunions@yahoo.com.ph> WESTERN UNION

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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:
- "western union" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "money gram" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "mtcn" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Western Union money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. It is the preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.

Fraud email example:

From: "WESTERN UNION" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <westernunions11@yahoo.com.ph>
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 03:26:02 -0200
Subject: WESTERN UNION

WESTERN UNION

I work for Western Union Transaction Security department and I'm supervisor for five african nations.

I have a way to make lot's of money but I need your help. Every year there's thousands of small Western Union transfers that are never picked up by a recipient. Many are small, from $50 to $200 but some can be more than $1000. If they are not collected in 6 months, they will be dropped from the net and cannot be picked up any more. They are called orphan MTCN's but even if they are not available for picking up for the public, they will still be good MTCN's and I have access to all of these in five African nations.

I can activate them when I want to but the problem is I can't travel to Africa to pick them up my self. It would be very suspicious so that's why I need your help. I will send you the MTCN's and you will go and pick them up. I want to have 50% of the money you pick up and you have to send it to me by using Money Gram, not Western Union. It's too dangerous for me if we use Western Union.

As a test I will send you first MTCN's worth around $2000. If all goes well, I will send you more and more. If you don't send me my share, then that's the end of it, you will never hear from me again. But if you keep sending me my share, I will keep sending you more MTCN's and we both will make lot's of money.

First I want to know where you live and are you interested?

Al

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam