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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: "ben bany" <bigbucks77@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: bbigbucks@excite.com
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 14:18:16 -1000
Subject: GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Winner,

We are pleased to announce you as one of the 10 lucky winners in the
FreeLotto draw held on the 20th of November, 2005. All 10 winning addresses
were randomly selected from a batch of 50,000,000 international emails.Your
email address emerged alongside 9 others as a category 2 winner in this
year's Annual BIGBUCKS Draw.

Consequently, you have therefore been approved for a total pay out of
US$2,500,000 (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars)
only.The following particulars are attached to your lotto payment order:

(i) winning numbers: 37-13-43-85-67-99
(ii) email ticket number: DDB772/13/99
(iii) lotto code number: BB/SA/DD-9999
(iv) the file Ref number: DD/08/999999/SA/99

Please contact the underlisted claims officer on or before 2ND, DECEMBER
2005 Deadline for the immediate release of your winnings:

MR. TUMI MATHAMBE
Chief financial Director
The BigBucks Lotto Company

TEL:- +27782513397
EMAIL: bbigbucks@excite.com

Please quote your Reference number in all correspondence with the claims
officer.

Winners should send to claim officer address
where they want their prize paid or sent.

Winners must send their names, address, telephone number
and any means of identification to claim officer, via email, to process the
immediate payment of your prize.

Once again on behalf of all our staff,

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Sincerely,
Theresa Packlane.
Promotions Manager
The Lotto company
Africa, UK & Europe.

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

The BigBucks Awards is proudly sponsored by a conglomeration of other
international IT companies.The BigBucks internet draw is held once in a year
and is so organized to encourage the use of the internet and computers
worldwide.We are proud to say that over US$5Million are won annually in
more than 150 countries worldwide.


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Anti-fraud resources: