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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: "INTERNATIONAL PRIZE AWARD DEPT" <internationalprizeawarddept3@yahoo.de>
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 18:32:59 +1100
Subject: YOU WON OUR INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY PROMOTION


FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL WORLDWIDE INTERNET USER LOTTERY
PRIZE AWARD DEPT.

Attn:Lucky Winner,

YOUR WINNING NOTIFICATION FOR USING THE INTERNET.

We are pleased to inform you that one of the best things that can happen to
any Internet user is to be rewarded for spending money and time on the
Internet. You may not have known that over one hundred billion people daily
surf the Internet on regular basis for one reason or other. These Internet
users including yourself, pay access fees to various Internet Service
Providers (ISP) all over the word who in turn remit surplus funds to the
numerous World Wide Internet Technology Companies (WWITC) for the
development and advancement of Global Information Technology.

So much money is generated from people like you all over the World for
using the Information Superhighway (the Internet) without your being aware
the enormous sum that go to the stake holders (WWWITC). Without your
patronage, this would not have been possible. After we conducted a research
on the issue, we concluded that Internet users should be compensated. As a
result, we embarked on a worldwide lottery promotion with a sophisticated
automated database to randomly select E-mail accounts that frequently surf
the Internet. Consequent upon this, your E-mail address was picked for
Category œA Winners.

After the automated computer ballot, your E-mail address emerged as a
winner in the category "A" with the following numbers attached

Ref Number: PW EH 9590 OG 0612,
Batch Number: PA 563881545-NL/2007


You and other category œA winners are therefore to receive a cash prize of
$2,500,000.00 (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) from
the total payout of One Billion US Dollars earmarked in the lottery for
category œA winners. Your prize award has been insured with your E-mail
address, which qualified you for the lottery and will be transferred to you
upon meeting our requirements, statutory obligations, verifications,
validations and satisfactory proof of E-mail address ownership.

To file in for the processing of your winning cash prize, you are advised
to contact our certified
and accreditted claims agent for category "A" winners with the information
below:

CLAIMS AGENT.

Name: Hanz Daniel
Email: internet_surfaward@yahoo.de
Email: surf_2007.claimsoffice@yahoo.de
Phone: +31 619 729 459

You are advised to provide him with the following information:

First name:
Last Name:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:
Ref Number:
Batch Number:

NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later than 14 days, thereafter
unclaimed funds would be forfeited after a trio repeated forwarding of this
message to you without your response. Remember to quote your reference
information in all correspondence.

You are to keep all lotto information confidential, especially your
reference numbers and the password of your E-mail address. Since we do not
know you, if an impostor hacks your E-mail account ID and claims your money
without our knowledge, we shall not be liable. Double claims will not be
entertained so be careful. Furthermore, should there be any change of
address do inform our agent as soon as possible.

Congratulations!!! And thank you for being a user of the World Wide Web.

Yours Faithfully,
Marry Jones
Lottery Coordinator.

Anti-fraud resources: