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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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: informingyou@handbag.com
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 15:33:08 +0200
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE WON IT BIG.

LUCKY DAY
218 Straweestraat, 1053 N- Ams,
The Netherlands.
Tel/Fax: +31-84-754-7028
www.luckyday.nl

From:The Director, International
Promotion/Prize Award Dept.

Sir/Madam,

RE:FOR YOUR NOTIFICATION.

We are pleased to inform you of the release today the 22 of June, 2005 of
the Lucky Day Lottery held on the 21 of June, 2005. Your email address attached
to ticket number CS-11033101, which drew lucky numbers 5-12-17-23-31-66 has
won the lottery in the first category. You have therefore, won Two Million
United States Dollars (US$2M) in cash credited to file Ref.No CR/32322786102NL
and BATCH No:10/03/AB.

This US$2,000,000.00 is from a total cash pool of US$20Million shared among
ten lucky winners in this category all over the world. We ask that you keep
this winning private from public notice until your claim has been processed
and your money remitted to your designated account.This is part of our security
protocol to avoid double claim, disclaimer and unwarranted abuse of this
programme by participants. Early January this year, there was an incident
of a disclaimer to the lump sum lottery winning prize of US$162M in USA.
This is as a result of unnecessary publicity given to the winning prize by
the winner. The disclaimer later apologised publicly (our source: CNN). We
do not want to experience this ugly situation.

The lottery programme is co- sponsored by a major software provider. It is
an encouragement to Internet users and serves as a promotional activity for
the sponsors. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system
drawn from only Microsoft users from over 20,000 company and 1,000,000 individual
email addresses all over the world.This lottery programme takes place once
in a year.

For the processing of your claim, please contact our fiducial agent (Mr.
Isaac Benidt) at: (informingyou@handbag.com). To avoid delays and complications
in processing your winning prize, you are advised to include your Lucky Number,
Batch Number, Age, Occupation, Address, Telephone and Fax numbers when contacting
Mr. Isaac Benidt.
Furthermore, should there be any change of address during the time of claiming
your winning prize, do inform your agent as soon as possible.

Accept our congratulations and thank you for being part of our promotional
programme.

Note:
1). Anybody under the age of 18 years is automatically disqualified.
2). All winning prizes must be claimed not later than 22 July, 2005. At the
expiration of this date, all unclaimed prizes will be returned back to the
pool as unclaimed.

Regards,

Mr. Benson Dann(The Deputy Director, International Promotion/Prize Award
Dept.)

___________________________________________________________

Book yourself something to look forward to in 2005.
Cheap flights - http://www.tiscali.co.uk/travel/flights/
Bargain holidays - http://www.tiscali.co.uk/travel/holidays/





___________________________________________________________

Book yourself something to look forward to in 2005.
Cheap flights - http://www.tiscali.co.uk/travel/flights/
Bargain holidays - http://www.tiscali.co.uk/travel/holidays/



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