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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:

Fraud email example:

From: "Microsoft Corporation" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <replyto.ukplo@live.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:20:16 -0700
Subject: MICROSOFT AWARD TEAM.

Microsoft Corporation
#1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052.

Ref: BTD/968/06
Batch: 409978E

ATTN: DEAR WINNER

This is in receipt of your mail.Your email was luckily drawn by a computer balloting system as one of our winners in our experimental lottery bonanza from the prestigous MICROSOFT ONLINE PROMOTION.Thus, making you the winner of the sum of 1,000,000.00GBP (One Million Great British Pounds Sterlings).

This correspondence officially confirms that we are in receipt of instructions relating to the payment of your lottery winnings of 1,000,000.00GBP (One Million Great British Pounds Sterlings)

Your prize cheque has been vaulted safely with our corresponding Bank prior to your readiness to complete your claims and would be presented to you after verification of the data requested below.

To proceed with your claims, you would be required to fill the Verification Form below completely and return back to us immediately.

THIS SHOULD BE COMPLETED BY THE BENEFICIARY OF THE STATED FUND, FOR VERIFICATION BEFORE TRANSFER.

BENEFICIARY FIRST/LAST NAME......................
NATIONALITY......................................
RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS..............................
DATE OF BIRTH....................................
SEX..............................................
TEL. NUMBER......................................
FAX NUMBER.......................................
OCCUPATION.......................................
MARITAL STATUS...................................
EMAIL ADDRESS....................................

DECLARATION:

I..........................HEREBY DECLARE THAT THE ABOVE DATA ARE TRUE. THAT MY CLAIMS AGENT SHALL ACT AS A FACILITATOR IN THE TRANSFER OF THE TOTAL FUND TO ME.

Congratulations once again from the entire staff of the Microsoft Award Team.

Mr.David Giggs
MICROSOFT AWARD TEAM.
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 703 186 4854

Anti-fraud resources: