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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: "charles tariah" <charlestariah@msn.com>
Reply-To: charlestariah@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 14:53:57 +0000
Subject: Urgent Remminder.

From: The director of the Prize Award Department

Reference number:EL/20856740034/04
Number 1 = 27


Batch number 335/6025/SDD

Re: Award Notification (Final Notice).

We are pleased to inform you of the release on the
21st January, 2006, the Result of the EQUILOTTO INTERNATIONAL, UK
promotion program held on the 31st December, 2005. Your email address
attached to the ticket number 187-328285-732 with
serial number 02-14-26-26-44-11 & Lucky Numbers as follows
Number 2 = 46
Number 3 = 11
Number 4 = 22
Number 5 = 87
Number 6 = 47
Number 7 = 37

which consequently won the lottery in the 3rd category. You have
therefore been awarded the lump sum of £3,158,100.00
(three million one hundred and fifty eight thousand, one
hundred British pounds sterling) in cash credited to file
number AE/7203630/04 .This is from the total cash prize off
£78,684,000.00(Seventy Eight million, six hundred and
eighty four thousand British pounds sterling) which is being
shared among Seventeen international lucky winners in
this category!


Due to a mix up of some names and numbers, we strongly recommend that you
keep this award secret from public notice until your
claim has been processed and the money remitted to. This is a part of our
security protocol to avoid double claim and unwanted scams of this
Program by other participants.

All participants were selected through a computer
ballot system drawn from 125,000 email addresses from
all over the world as a part of our International
promotional program, which is done twice annually. We
hope that with a part of your prize, you will take
part in our end of year high Stake #1.3bn lottery.
To avoid fraud and scams, and to begin your claim, Please
contact only your assigned agent, Mr. Charles Tariah,
Foreign Services Manager of APEX SUBSCRIBER AGENTS
via email on: charlestariah@yahoo.co.uk. He will also detail you on the
payment procedure.

All prize money must be claimed no later than 14days from the date of
this notice, as after this date, all funds will be
returned to EQUILOTTO UK, INTERNATIONAL as unclaimed.

In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your
reference and batch number in every correspondence with us, or your agent.
Furthermore, if you have changed your email address,
do contact your agent to notify him of the change.

Congratulations once more for and on behalf of all
members of my staff and thank you for being a part of
our promotions program.

Yours sincerely,
Francois Harrington



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