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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "De Lotto NL." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <keochus@aol.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2010 02:47:17 +0200
Subject: Good Blessings!!!

De Lotto NL (The Netherlands).
File Serial No: DL/13212/039ZX.
File Reference No: FRN/17100/DENL

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

We are pleased to provide you with the out come of our Promotional Sweepstake program that was conducted on the 31st Day of July, 2010 and that your e-mail address which was extracted among other e-mail addresses from the Internet Data Base and attach to a File Serial Number: DL/13212/039ZX, has won you a total prize money of 1,925,000 euro (One Million, Nine Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand Euros) in cash. You are advice to contact our Payment Release Department upon your receipt of this message through the below stated details for the documentation/release of the prize money to you.

Mr. Kelvin O.
Tel: +31-616-361436
Fax: +31-205-241634
Email: keochus@aol.com

As part of our security protocol to avoid unwarranted abuse of this program, we kindly ask that you keep your winning information private until your claim has been processed and your prize money remitted to you. This lottery program was sponsored by a consortium of software companies as a way of rewarding the Internet users. Your winning must be claimed not later than the 30days of your receipt of this message. Please note that in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications do remember to provide our payment department with the following details.

1). Full Names (As prefer to be Written on your Winning Documents):
2). Residential Address:
3). Occupation:
4). Phone/Fax Numbers:
5). Nationality:
6). Reference Number:
7). Winning Email Address:

Congratulations and thanks for being part of our Lottery program.

Sincerely yours,
Guus Mayer. (Programs Coordinator)
For: Lotto NL. (Lotto is een onderdeel van De Lotto).
Copyright(c) 2009 by De Lotto, the Netherlands.
Website: http://lotto.nl

Anti-fraud resources: