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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.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Mark Jackson" <m_lottery2005@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: m_claimagent2005@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 11:09:41 +0000
Subject: CONGRATULATION!!!!!!!

REF NUMBER: OSL/746/029/03
BATCH NUMBER: AT-040-SB06-03

We are pleased to inform you, THAT AS A RESULT OF OUR RECENT CHRISTMAS
LOTTERY PROMOTION DRAWS HELD on the 17th of October 2005.

Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 27522465896-532 with serial
number 652-662 drew lucky numbers 7-14-18-23-31-45 which consequently won in
the
2nd category. you have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of
1,000,000 (DOLLARS) (ONE MILLION DOLLARS).

Note that All participants in this lottery program have been selected
randomly through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 companies
and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from all search engines and web
sites. This promotional program takes place every year, and is promoted and
sponsored by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei, bill gates of
microsoft inc and other corporate organisations. this
is to encourage the use of the internet and computers worldwide.

To enable us file in your name for payment,please do
provide the following informations:

1,YOUR FULL NAME: ................
2,YOUR SEX:..................
3,YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBER .........
4,YOUR FAX NUMBER:...............
5,YOUR OCCUPATION:....................
6,YOUR COMPANY: ................
7,YOUR AGE:..........
8,Country:..........................
9,YOUR REF NUMBER:............
10,ADDRESS & POSTAGE............


You are to send all the infomation to the lottery office.

E-mail: m_claimagent2005@yahoo.co.uk

Congratulations once again.

THANKS
LOTTERY OFFICE.


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