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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: "adams cole" <leedslottoint@msn.com>
Reply-To: leedslottoint@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Fri, 02 Sep 2005 10:41:42 +0000
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

The Coordinator,
Leeds Lotto Int’l.

Dear sir/Madam,

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today september 1st, 2005
of winners of the Leeds 2005 held on the august 27th, 2005.The major
sponsors of the Leeds Sport contributed funds for the raffle promo. These
include Adidas, Hyundai, Fuji Film, Master Card, Gillette, Coca cola,
Continental, Toshiba, McDonalds, Emirates Airline and a host of others.

Your email address attached to ticket number 20000;with serial number
027240879 drew the lucky numbers and consequently emerged as one of the
winners under1st category. You have therefore been approved of a Prize of
One Million Two Hundred Thousand Pound (£1,200,000.00) credited to file REF
NO.LL3425/802/05.
This is from total prize money of ten Million Pounds shared among the Twenty
International Winners in 1st-3rd category.
All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from
25,000 company email addresses and 30,000,000 individual email addresses
from Australia, New Zealand, America, Europe, North America and Asia as part
of International Promotions Program, which is conducted annually.

We ask that you keep this award strictly confidential until your claim has
been processed and your money remitted to you.
To receive your claim, please contact your claim officer:

Mr. Adams Cole.
Officer In Charge.
Email: leedslottoint@yahoo.co.uk

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
remember to quote your reference and batch numbers in every one of your
correspondences with your agent.
Furthermore, should there be any change of your address, email, telephone
number does inform your claims agent within 24 hours. Anybody under the age
of 18 is AUTOMATICALY DISQUALIFIED. 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.

Yours Sincerely,
The Coordinator,
Leeds Lotto Int’l.


Anti-fraud resources: