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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: "walter jones" <claims_sections@msn.com>
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2006 19:11:08 +0000
Subject: FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL PRIZE AWARD DEPT

FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL PRIZE AWARD DEPT
Attn Lucky Winner,
WINNING NOTIFICATION FOR CATEGORY "A" WINNER ONLY
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the last final annual draw of
our Lottery International Programs.
The online cyber lotto draws was conducted from an exclusive list of
25,000,000 e-mail addresses of
individual and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random
computer search from the
internet. No tickets were sold.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
After this automated computer ballot, your e-mail address emerged as a
winner in the category "A" with
the following numbers attached Ref Number: PW 9590 ES 9414,Batch Number:
573881545-NL/2005
and Ticket Number: PP 3502 /8707-01
You are therefore to receive a cash prize of $1,500,000.00. (One Million
Five Hundred Thousand
United States Dollars) from the total payout CONGRATULATIONS!!!. Your prize
award has been insured
with your e-mail address and will be transferred to you upon meeting our
requirements, statutory
obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report.
To file in for the processing of your prize winnings, you are advised to
contact our Certified and
Accredited claims agent for category "A" winners with the information below:
*************************************
Name: Palmer Chris
Phone: +31 645 533 149
Email: agentchrispalmer@netscape.net
*************************************
You are advice to provide him with the following information:
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later than 14 days, thereafter
unclaimed funds would be included
in the next stake. Remember to quote your reference information in all
correspondence.
You are to keep all lotto information confidential, especially your
reference and ticket numbers.
(This is important as a case of double claims will not be
entertained).Members of the affiliate agencies
are automatically not allowed to participate in this program.
Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agent as
soon as possible.
Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being
part of our promotional program.
Yours Faithfully,
Walter Jones.
Lottery Coordinator.
Thank you and congratulations!!!

This email may contain information which is confidential and/or privileged.
The information is intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you are not
the intended recipient, be aware
that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents is
prohibited. If you have received this
electronic transmission in error,please notify the sender by telephone or
return email and delete the
material from your computer.


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