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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: manager_shabalala01@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 10:53:19 +0200
Subject: Congratulation

FROM THE DESK OF THE PROMOTION MANAGER
SHAWSTAKERS LOTTERY, SOUTH AFRICA.

Hello Lucky Winner,

We are pleased to inform you of our announcement today, 21th Sept, 2005
of
winners in the SHAWSTAKERS LOTTERY Promotional draw held on the 4th
August
2005.
Participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from
2,500,000 email addresses of individuals and companies from Africa,
America,
Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Middle East, and New Zealand as part
of our
electronic business Promotions Program.

You qualified for the draw as a result of you visiting various
e-business
website we are running on the Internet.
A ticket number 100-309-7482,with serial number 111 410-887 was
attached to
your entry which drew the lucky numbers 1 10 29 37 45 49 and
consequently
won in the second
category.You are therefore awarded a cash prize of US$900,000.00, which
is
the winning payout for Second category winners.This is from the total
prize
money of
US$13,650,000.00 shared among several international/local winners in
the
Second category.
CONGRATULATIONS!
You are to file in your claim to the director of claims
department with the information below to arrange for your payout,
Mr.Shabalala Mike
Email: manager_shabalala01@yahoo.com

Tel:+0027 73 6673 456

Ensure that you contact the claim department not later than
21 days from the day you receive this notification message.

Sincerely,
Promotion Manager

Anti-fraud resources: