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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.

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Fraud email example:

From: "MRS. MIRJAM SABATINI" <lottory_netherland@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 00:27:43 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: ATTN: URGENT REPLY NEEDE ........


MICRO LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL - PROMOTIONAL PROGRAM
ADDRESS: DAALWIJK 813, 1102 AA, AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS.
FROM THE PRIZE AWARD DEPT
REF: MLI/PP2005-001
BATCH: 5300/P25/FC
ATTENTION:

AWARD NOTIFICATION / PROCESSING ADVICE: MLI
This is to announce today, 27TH OF JULY, 2005 result of winners of our yearly SCIENTIFIC LOTTERY GAME PROMOTION held on 3rd January, 2005. Your email address attached to ticket number 05-765204AC; with serial number 00349 draw the lucky numbers 5-9-31-20, and consequently won the lottery in category A. You are therefore entitled to a cash award 1,500,000euros (One Million, Five Hundred Thousand EUROS), file REF NO. MLI/PP2005-001. This is from total prize money of 22, 000,000.00euros shared among the international winners in our category A-C.

All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 15,000 company email addresses and 35,000,000 individual email addresses from across the Globe as part of International Promotional Program, which is conducted annually. CONGRATULATIONS! Your fund is now in custody of a Financial Security company insured in your FILE REFERENCE. Due to the mix up of some email addresses, we ask that you keep this award strictly from public notice until your claim has been processed and your money remitted to your account. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants of this program.

This lottery program was organized by our group of philanthropist promoted and sponsored by Mr. Bill Gates of Microsoft Inc, eminent personalities like the sultan of Brunei, Multi Choice and other corporate Organisations.This lottery program was organized to improving the use of computer softwares and for the benefit of every Microsoft user. To begin your claim, please contact your file processing officer:

DR. EDWIN VAN BUREN
OF MICRO LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL
Email: dr_edwin02@yahoo.com
Tel: +31 641 886 87

Kind Regards.
MRS. MIRJAM SABATINI
DIRECTOR OF PROMOTIONAL PROGRAM

__________________________________________________
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