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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: "paycenter@yahoo.uk.com" <paycentergsbgta@yahoo.uk.com>
Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 05:07:37 +0200
Subject: ALL THE BEST

FROM: THE DESK OF THE E-MAIL PROMOTIONS MANAGER, INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT MICROSOFT MEGA JACKPOT LOTTERY, UNITED KINGDOM. 89 New Fetter Lane London, EC4A 1AG U.K PROMOTION DIRECTOR; DR. MARK DELNADO TEL: +44 700 599 3546 FAX: +44 870 133 2577 Ref No: BL3/200345/07GBI Batch No: 35/203/FME. ELECTRONIC MAIL AWARD WINNING NOTIFICATION. AWARD PRESENTATION CENTER: UNITED KINGDOM Finally today, we announce the winners of the MICROSOFT MEGA JACKPOT LOTTO WINNINGS PROGRAMS held on 9th May 2006. Your company or your personal e-mail address, attached to winning number 38-51-23-74-02-757, With serial number 647489, consequently won in the Tenth lottery category. You are therefore been approved for lump sums pay out of GBP 5,500,000.00 POUNDS ($10,464,000 USD) in cash Credited to file Ref: BL3/200345/07GBI and winning number 38-51-23-74-02-757, this is from total prize money of GBP 27,500,000.00 POUNDS, shared among the Twenty five (25)international winners in this category. All participants were selected through our Microsoft computer ballot system drawn form 42,000 Names, 6,000 names from each continent, as part of International "E-MAIL" Promotions Program, for our prominent MS WORD user all over the world, and for the Continues use of E-mail. Your fund has been insured with your Ref: BL3/200345/07GBI and winning number 38-51-23-74-02-757. To claim your winning prize, you must first contact the claims department by email for Processing and remittance of your prize money to you. Claims Officer: Name: Mr. Norman Williams, Email: royainfo@netscape.net This cash giveaway was designed by Microsoft to introduce to the United Kingdom visitors consumers, a special benefit designed to save you thousands of pounds on purchases ranging from everyday name brand groceries to travel and entertainment .Your email address was accessed from computer list database of British consumers who recently participated in a sweepstakes contest and/or made a recent purchase of a product through the internet or otherwise. Once your email was accessed, case file #50861119138 was assigned to you. And with it all right and privileges. In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference and winning numbers in all correspondences with your claims officer. Secretary, Mrs. Chonney minchi. NOTE: Do not reply this mail. You are to contact your claims officer immediately by email. Or call the promotion director DR. MARK DELNADO on PHONE #:+44 700 599 3546 to confirm your winnings. SPONSORS: MS-WORD LOTTERY WORLD WIDE, GLOBAL EXPRESS COURIER, YAHOO.COM, MSN.COM, UK2.NET, NATWEST PRIVATE BANK.

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