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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: "Ben Georges" <ben@mail2uk.com> (may be fake)
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 13:29:16 +0700
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION

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 (#147) of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY, online sweepstakes International
program held on Saturday January 8, 2005. Your e-mail ddress attached to ticket number: 56475600545 188 with
Serial number 368/02 drew the lucky numbers: 05-10-13-14-28-42-48(bonus no.), which subsequently won you the
lottery in the 2nd category i.e. match 6 plus bonus. You have therefore been approved to claim a total
sum £ 2,203,479 in cash credited to file ktu/9023118308/03 This is from a total cash prize of £25 Million pounds,
shared amongst the first Ten (10) lucky winners in this category.

All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted
from over 100,000 companies. This promotion takes place annually. Please note that your lucky winning number falls
within our Asia booklet representative office in Asia, Europe and America as indicated in your play coupon. In view
of this, your £2,203,479 British pounds would be released to you by our payment office in Asia, Europe and America,
our agents 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 measures to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous
elements. Please be warned.

To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent: Mr. Hanza MUSA. Email: musa@mail2indonesia.com,
Tel: +6285691300095, to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your reference/batch numbers
in any correspondences with us or our designated agent.

Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this program.
Thank you for being part of our promotional lottery program.

Sincerely,
Mr. Ben Georges
(UK-LOTTO Co-ordinator)


Anti-fraud resources: