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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: "Grace Hopkin" <gracehopkin77@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 19:17:04 -0700
Subject: Congrats

ORGANISATION OF PETROLEUM EXPORTING COUNTRIES [OPEC]
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LOTTERY PROGRAM.
AWARD DEPT.NIGERIA
REF:ODD/7316786098/06
BATCH: 14/055/IPD/ZUB
WINNING NO: 750333933-77


DEAR WINNER,


WINNING NOTIFICATION / FINAL NOTICE:

This is to inform you of the announcement made on the 18th of January 2006
of your election as one of the 17 winners of the OPEC INTERNATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT LOTTERY PROGRAM held recently as part of our NEW YEAR BONANZA.

Participants were selected through a computer ballot random sampling method
drawn from 2,500,000 names/email addresses of individuals and companies from
Africa, America, Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East, and Oceania as part
of our International Promotions Program.

You/Your company, attached to winning number 750333933-77, with serial
number 544018 drew the lucky numbers 27-842-70-77 and consequently won in
the first Category. You are herefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of
USD$2,700,000.00 (Two Million Seven Hundred Thousand Dollars only) in cash
credited to file REF NO.GML/2551256003/23. This year's Diversity
OPEC sweepstakes Lottery program made available the sum of $34,000,000 from
the OPEC fund for international development to be shared among seventeen
lucky winners across the world.


Place of Claims: - All cash prizes under an amount defined by the Director
may be claimed through a duly authorized claim center in any of the OPEC
members’ country, which may be but is not limited to an Agent's licensed
location or at the offices of the Division of Revenue. All cash prizes
greater than $5000 must be claimed at the claims agent office in any of the
OPEC members’ country zone for such purpose.


In light of this, your prize money will be settled by our claims agent in
Nigeria PECIFIC SECURITIES AND FINANCE LTD. You are to contact our agent by
Email within a week of receiving this notice. Please find full contact
details below:

Dr. Thomas Ayuba.
FOREIGN SERVICE MANAGER,
PECIFIC SECURITIES AND FINANCE LTD.
7 Victoria Garden City Ikoyi Lagos.
Nigeria.
Email Address: pecifix@myway.com

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 you are seriously advised to
keep all winning lottery information and numbers from the public in
line with OPEC security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted
abuse of this program by unscrupulous individuals.


Congratulations again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our
Promotions program.


Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Grace Hopkin.
THE PROMOTIONS MANAGER,


N.B. Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result to
disqualification. Please do not reply to this mail. Contact your claims
agent.


Anti-fraud resources: