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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: Petra Jones <pyramidlottery@walla.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 10:23:49 -0800
Subject: You Have Won !!!


FROM THE COORDINATOR,
PYRAMID INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY.
PROMOTION & PRIZE AWARD DEPT,
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
OUR REF: PINTL/4681/0912/06
END OF YEAR AWARD BONNAZA !!!
Dear Winner,

We are pleased to inform you the result of the computer random selection by Pyramid International lottery. This program is organized yearly by Microsoft, in conjunction with the foundation for the promotion of software products, (F.P.S.), to increase computer literacy and also to promote the use of internet. The email lottery draws was conducted from an exclusive list of 700,000.000 e-mail addresses of individual, companies, and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search ballot system from the Internet. (NO TICKETS WERE SOLD).
Your email address, attached to
REFERENCE NUMBER: PINTL4681/0912/06
Batch Numbers: BN/88/D32-71
Serial numbers: 45-90-31-67
Lucky numbers: 30-44-13-08-02
Drew and consequently won the lottery in category. "A".
Your email address was among the 20 Lucky winners in Category "A" who won Euros1, 000,000.00 each on the Pyramid international Lottery.
You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay of Euros 1.000.000.00. (One Million Euros)

Your funds have now been insured and deposited with our affiliate Bank in the Netherlands for transfer into your nominated bank account either by means of wire transfer or any other means suitable to you, upon meeting our requirements, statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report.
To begin the claims processing of your prize winnings you are advised to contact our licensed and accredited claims agent for category "A" winners with the information below:
Mr. Morgan Stevens (Paying/Foreign Department Manager)
Email: pyramidlottery@aim.com
Tel: 31-623--850-306 /Fax: 31-847-301-193

You are expected to provide the following details below to your claims agent:
1) BATCH AND REFFERENCE NUMBERS
2) FULL NAMES
3) AGE
4) OCCUPATION
5) MAILING ADDRESS
6) PHONES AND FAX NUMBERS
7) EMAIL ADDRESS
Remember, all winning must be claimed not later than 20 days from the time you receive this mail.
Please note, in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications,
Remember to quote your reference and batch number in all correspondence.
Congratulations once again and thank you for being part of our promotions program.
Yours sincerely,

Mrs. Petra Jones (Lottery Coordinator)
N. B. Any breach of confidentiality Or Secrecy on the part of the winners will result to disqualification.
Please do not reply to this email address. Contact your claims agent
immediately.



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