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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: "MICROSOFT" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <claimsverifications@msn.com>
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2010 04:47:19 +0530
Subject: Winning Claims Of £1,000,000.00?

Dear e-Mail Winner,
 
We are pleased to inform you that your email account has won
£1,000,000.00GBP from the MICROSOFT Award e-mail Draw October 1st 2010
edition,with Ref:MSN-UK/9420X/05,Batch:074/05/ZY369 and Winning :WZ554/30.
 
The selection process was carried out through a random selection in our
computerized email selection system(s) from a database of over 250,000
email addresses,which your email selected you as one of the lucky winners
for this year.Congratulations.
 
Contact Person: Mr.Scott Williams
Email: claimsverifications@msn.com
 
Provide him with the information below:
 
1.Name.2.Address.3.Nationality.4.Age.5.Occupation.6.Phone/Fax.
 
Yours faithfully,
Sir Bill Gate(Mr.)
Online Supervisor
 

Anti-fraud resources: