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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: "FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL PRIZE AWARD DEPT" <inter2007dept@yahoo.de>
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 21:22:56 -0400
Subject: [URGENT]: IT HAS HAPPENED!

FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL PRIZE AWARD DEPT

Attn Lucky Winner,

WINNING NOTIFICATION FOR CATEGORY "A" WINNER ONLY

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the last final annual draw of
our Lottery International Programs.

The online cyber lotto draws was conducted from an exclusive list of
25,000,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate bodies picked
by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. No
tickets were sold.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

After this automated computer ballot, your e-mail address emerged as a
winner in the category "A" with the following numbers attached Ref
Number: MH 9590 JE 0612, Batch Number: 863881546-NL/2007 and Ticket Number:
PA 8502 /9707-01

You are therefore to receive a cash prize of $2,500,000.00. (Two Million
Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) from the total payout
CONGRATULATIONS!!!. Your prize award has been insured with your e-mail
address and will be transferred to you upon meeting our requirements,
statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report.

To file in for the processing of your prize winnings, you are advised to
contact our Certified and Accredited claims agent for
category "A" winners with the information below:
************************************************
Name: Pieter Henk
Phone: +31 644 893 668
claims_pieter@yahoo.de
pieterhenk2007@inbox.com.
************************************************
You are advice to provide him with the following information:
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:

NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later than 14 days, thereafter
unclaimed funds would be included in the next stake.
Remember to quote your reference information in all correspondence.

You are to keep all lotto information confidential, especially your
reference and ticket numbers. (This is important as a case of double
claims will not be entertained).Members of the affiliate agencies are
automatically not allowed to participate in this program.

Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agent as
soon as possible.

Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being
part of our promotional program.

Yours Faithfully,
Walter Jones.
Lottery Coordinator.
Thank you and congratulations!!!

This email may contain information which is confidential and/or privileged.
The information is intended solely for the use of the individual or
entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that
any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents is
prohibited. If you have received this electronic transmission in
error,please notify the sender by telephone or return email and delete
the material from your computer

Anti-fraud resources: