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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: "loto draw" <l_draw@msn.com>
Reply-To: bill_batch22@myway.com
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 11:06:26 +0000
Subject: URGENT NOTIFICATION

The Coordinator
Lotto Draw
Dear Sir,
Congratulation
We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today
December 20st, 2005 of winners of the Lotto DRAW PROMO held
on the December 1, 2005.
Your email address attached to ticket number
3456123456789123;
with serial number 45637/05 drew the lucky numbers
2-156-09-005, and
consequently emerged as one of the winners under 1st
category. You have therefore been approved of a Prize
of One million euro ($1,000,000.00) credited to file
REF NO.uk/45637/05. 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. Bill Batch
Email:billbatch@myway.com
Tel/Fax:+44 7040110952
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 ofstaff and
thank you for being part of our promotional program.
Yours Sincerely,
The Coordinator
Lotto Draw

Anti-fraud resources: