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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: "Lotto Promotions Coordinator" <rebekahpayne_sweepstakesbv@yahoo.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: markstarton@mail.com
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 11:33:32 -0800
Subject: NOVEMBER 18TH, 2004 WINNERS NOTICE: YOUR EMAIL EMERGED CYBER LOTTO WINNER


FROM: PROMOTIONS DEPARTMENT OF SWEEPSTAKES DE FORTUNE BV, WINNING NOTICE FOR SILVER STAKES WINNERS -Ref. No.- SF/04/652659963/BV

ATTN:
SWEEPSTAKES DE FORTUNE BV has just concluded final draws from it's periodical promotional program. A list of thousands of individuals and corporate bodies were picked by an advanced automated random computer search over the internet as no tickets were sold for this program.Your email address soughted from a total
number of 25,000 email addresses all over the globe emerged as one of seven winners in the SILVER STAKES category, hence you as well as the other six winners are to receive payouts of €5,000,000.00 (FIVE MILLION EUROS) each. Kindly note that each emerging winning email address as selected by the online cyber lotto, was accompanied by a reference and ticket number.Your email is attached to the following:
Reference number for your prize is: SF/04/652659963/BV,
Ticket number: SF87863BV

For confirmation of the claim of your prize money, you are TO FORWARD a copy of this notification email to our customer service representative with informations below for further instructions on how you can claim your prize:

Mr.Mark Starton,
Customer Service Representative
SWEEPSTAKES DE FORTUNE BV,
Email: markstarton@mail.com
CC: markstarton_sweepstakesbv1@yahoo.co.uk
Tel/Fax: +31 847301400

You WILL be required to provide any of the above information during the process of collecting your prize. We congratulate you once again and it is our hope that you participate in any of our international programs in the nearest future.Thank you and CONGRATULATIONS!

Sincerely,
Rebekah Payne,
Lotto Promotions Coordinator
SWEEPSTAKES DE FORTUNE BV

PLEASE NOTE:
DUE TO MIX UP OF SOME REFERENCE NUMBERS AND EMAIL IDS, YOU ARE ADVICED TO STRICTLY KEEP ALL LOTTERY INFORMATIONS FROM PUBLIC UNTIL YOUR CLAIM HAS BEEN FULLY PROCESSED AND YOUR FUNDS REMITTED INTO YOUR ACCOUNT AS WE WILL NOT ENTERTAIN CASES OF MULTIPLE CLAIMS PROCESSING AND ABUSE OF THIS PROGRAM BY UNSCRUPULOUS PERSON(S) OR COMPROMISE THE PRIVACY AND SECURITY OF ALL OUR WINNERS.THIS IS IN LINE WITH THE DATA PROTECTION ACT OF THE SWEEPSTAKES DE FORTUNE BV.










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