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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: "lottery award" <lottery@awardpromotionsoffice.net>
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 18:35:17 +0000
Subject: NOTIFICATION OF ONLINE LOTTO WINNINGS

Orbit Sweepstakes
P O Box 127
London, UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)

NOTIFICATION OF ONLINE LOTTO WINNINGS:

We happily announce to you the draws of Orbit
Sweepstake Lottery, Online Scientific Sweepstakes
International Program held on Friday 10th June, 2005.
Your email address attached to ticket/serial number
OR3347-05, with serial number OR723-29 drew the lucky
numbers: 7-12-18-37-41-47 (bonus no. 11), With
Ref.Number: OSP/7670S05/68, Batch Number:
05/002/OSP875 and subsequently won the lottery in the
1st category.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum
of £650,000.00 (Six hundred and fifty thousand, pounds
sterling) in cash credited to file
ITY/08473484558/05. This is from a total cash prize of £3,820,000.00
shared amongst the first seven(5) lucky Winners in this category.

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 listed online.

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 £650,000.00 (Six hundred and fifty
thousand, pounds sterling) would be released to you by
any of our payment offices.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
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. Deductions from
WINNING SUM is not allowed until WINNING SUM has been
handed over to the winner. Please be warned. To file
for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent:

Orbit Sweepstakes
P O Box 127
London, UNITED KINGDOM
Claims office)
Email: orbitpromo12@3xl.net

All prize money must be claimed in ten working days.
After this date, all funds will be returned as
unclaimed.

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and
complications, please always remember to quote your
reference and batch numbers in every correspondence
with your claims agent. Furthermore, should there be
any change of your address, do inform your claims
agent as soon as possible.

Please include your private telephone and fax numbers
while replying.
Congratulations once again from our team of staff and
thank you for being part of our promotional program.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Kathy Yates
Lottery Coordinator

----------------------------------------------------------

Note: Anybody under the age of 17 is AUTOMATICALY
DISQUALIFIED and Any BREACH of CONFIDENTIALITY on the
part of the WINNERS will result to disqualification.


Anti-fraud resources: