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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: "Dr.Lindsay Burrows" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <hrvtyler@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 23:52:40 +0100
Subject: POWERED BY GOOGLE INCORPORATION

Google Incorporation®
Belgrave House,
76 Buckingham Palace Road,
London SW1W 9TQ,
United Kingdom.
 
We wish to congratulate you once again on this note, for being part of our winners selected this year. This promotion was set-up to encourage the active users of the Google search engine and the Google ancillary services.
 
Hence we do believe with your winning prize, you will continue to be active and patronage to the Google search engine.
 
Google is now the biggest search engine worldwide and in an effort to make sure that it remains the most widely used search engine, we ran an online e-mail beta test which your email address won£850,000.00.
 
We wish to formally announce to you that you have successfully passed the requirements, statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report Test conducted for all online winners.
 
A winning cheque will be issued in your name by the Google Promotion Award Team, You have therefore won the entire sum of £850,000.00 {Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds} and also a certificate of prize claims will be sent along side your winnings cheque.
 
Google Promotion Award Team.
Harvey Tyler,
Email:hrvtyler@gmail.com
 
You are advised to contact your Foreign Transfer Manager with the following details to avoid unnecessary delay and complications:
VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM.
 
VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM.
(1) Your contact address.                  
(2) Your Tel/Fax numbers.
(3) Your Nationality/Country.
(4) Your Full Name.
(5) Occupation/Age.
(6) Your Preferred Method of Receiving Your Prize (From Below)
 
Mode Of Prize Remittance.
(1)Cash Pick-Up (You coming Down to United Kingdom Personally to Pick Your
Prize).
 
(2)Courier Delivery Of your Certified Winning Cheque Name and other Winning
Documents safely to you.                   
The Google Promotion Award Team has discovered a huge number of double claims due to winners informing close friends relatives and third parties about their winning and also sharing their pin numbers.
 
As a result of this, these friends try to claim the lottery on behalf of the real winners.
 
The Google Promotion Award Team has reached a decision from headquarters that any double claim discovered by the Lottery Board will result to the cancelling of that particular winning, making a loss for both the double claimer and the real winner, as it is taken that the real winner was the informer to the double claimer about the lottery.
 
So you are hereby strongly advised once more to keep your winnings strictly confidential until you claim your prize.
 
Congratulations from the Staffs & Members of the Google interactive Lotteries Board Commission.
 
Sincerely,
Dr.Lindsay Burrows
Google Incorporations.

Anti-fraud resources: