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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: "softwordlottery International" <swdlottqchnmvjn@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 21:02:06 +1000
Subject: Award Confirmation.

SOFTWORD LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL - PROMOTIONAL PROGRAM
ADDRESS: OOSTELIJKE HANDELSKADE 1019, 234BM AMSTERDAM,
NETHERLANDS.
REF: SFWLI/XQA2005-001AAA
BATCH: 8240/Z32/VK

Att: Winner,

RE AWARD NOTIFICATION / PROCESSING ADVICE: SWLI

This is to announce today, 2nd August, 2005 result of winners of our
yearly SCIENTIFIC LOTTERY GAME PROMOTION held on 30th July, 2005.
Your email address attached to ticket number 05-765204AC; with serial
number 00349 draw the lucky numbers 5-9-31-20, and consequently won the
lottery in category A. You are therefore entitled to a cash award
US$1,500,000 (One Million, Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars),
file REF NO. SFWLI/XQA2005-001AAA. This is from total prize money of
US$22, 000,000.00 shared among the international winners in our category A-C.
All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from
15,000 company email addresses and 35,000,000 individual email addresses
from across the Globe as part of International Promotional Program, which
is conducted annually. CONGRATULATIONS! Your fund is now in custody of a
Financial Security company insured in your FILE REFERENCE. Due to the mix
up of some email addresses, we ask that you keep this award strictly from
public notice until your claim has been processed and your money remitted
to your account. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double
claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants of this program.
This lottery program was organized by our group of philanthropist promoted
and sponsored by Mr. Bill Gates of Microsoft Inc, eminent personalities
like the sultan of Brunei, Multi Choice and other corporate
Organisations.This lottery program was organized to improving the use of
computer softwares and for the benefit of every Microsoft user.
In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember
to quote your reference and batch numbers in all correspondences with
your claims officer. You will be asked to provide your names to eneble us
proceed with your winning certificate and file keeping. To begin your claim,
please contact your file processing officer

Mr. Neil Stevenson Mcvarish,
OF SOFTWORD LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL
Email: softwordlotterynl_1@euromail.net
Email: softwordlott1@netscape.net
Tel: +31 643 492 588


Kind Regards.
MRS MONELLI BURNEL DOUNIA
DIRECTOR OF PROMOTIONAL PROGRAM

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