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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: "Dorothy Cole" <westbound29@zwallet.com> (may be fake)
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 15:48:29 +0100
Subject: National Lottery

The National Lottery
P O Box 1010
Liverpool, L70 1NL
UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369
WINNING NOTIFICATION:
We happily announce to you the draw (#959) of the UK
NATIONAL LOTTERY,online
Sweepstakes International program held on Friday
4th ,March 2005.
Your e-mail address at! ! tached to ticket number:
56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the
lucky numbers:03-06-15-16-33-48-43, which subsequently wonyou the lottery in
the 1st category i.e Match 6(no bonus)
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum
of £960,695 (Nine hundred and sixty thousand,six hundred and ninty five
pounds sterling) in cash credited to file
KTU/9023118308/03.
All participants for the online version were selected
randomly from
World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and
extracted from over
100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies
that are listed online.
This promotion takes place weekly.
Please note that your lucky winning number falls
within our European
booklet representative office in Europe as indicated
in your play coupon. In view of this, your £960,695
(Nine hundred and sixty thousand,six hundred and ninty five Euro)
would be released to you by any of our payment
offices in Europe.
Our European agent will immediately commence the
process to facilitate
the release of your funds as soon as you contact him.
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your
winning information
confidential till your claims is processed and your
money remitted to
you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your
prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid
double claiming and
unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned.
To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary
agent:
MR. FRANK BOWER.
Email:claims-department@msn.com
You can go to our online result site to confirm the
value of your
winnings and also get a prize breakdown:
Goodluck from me and members of staff of the UK
NATIONAL LOTTERY.
Yours faithfully,
Dorothy Cole.
Online coordinator for UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
Sweepstakes International Program.


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