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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: infolottonet@gmail.com <infolottonet@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 21:19:46 -0000
Subject: congratulation! you are a winner

LOTTONET INTERNATIONAL
FROM: THE DESK OF THE PROMOTIONS MANAGER,
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT,
REF: LN9087/9087
BATCH NO: 22/307/NL.

SERIAL NO: LN990190/NL
LUCKY NO: NLDLN/5642
ATTENTION: Sir/Madam,

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today as a winner of the
LOTTONET INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS held on 4TH MARCH, 2006 .
You or your company e-mail address, with serial number LN990190/NL drew the lucky numbers
NLDLN/5642, and consequently won the lottery in the "2nd" category.
You have therefore been approved a lump sum pay out of Two Million United States Dollars
US$2,000,000.00 in cash credited to file REF NO:LN9087/9087 . This is from total prize
money of US$20,500,000.00 shared among the Seven international winners
in three diffrent award categories. All participants were selected through a computer
balloting system drawn from 25,500,000 email addresses from Middle East,
Canada, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America and Oceania as part of our
International Promotions Program, which is conducted twice annually.

Due to the mix up of some numbers and email addresses, we ask that
you keep this award strictly from public notice until your claim has been
processed and your money remitted to your account. This is part of our
security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by
participants of this program.
We hope with a part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year
high stakes US$1.1 billion International Lottery.
To begin your claim, please contact

MR. RONALD DE VRIES
TEL: + (31) 649-304-789
EMAIL:infolottonet@netscape.net.
for due processing and remittance of your prize money to a designated account of your choice.
Remember, you must contact your claim agent not later than 18TH MARCH, 2006 after this date, all
funds would 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 US. Furthermore, should there be any change of
your e-mail address, do inform US as soon as possible.
Congratulations again from all our staff.
Sincerely,
MR. RICHARD COLE.
LOTERIE CO-ORDINATOR

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