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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: GLOBAL COURIER SERVICE <globa_courierservices@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 22:09:29 +0000
Subject: ATTENTION WINNER






ATTENTION: WINNER,

I recieved your e-mail
I know you understand the fact that trans-atlantic transfer comes with some measure of risk taking that is why the UK national lottery organization has saddled us with the responsibility of prompt delivery of funds to winners like you and to make sure the funds gets to you, the beneficiary.your email was selected online as one of uk international lottery lucky winner of the sum of 550,000 great britain pounds, attached to Ref:UK/9420X2/68, Batch:074/05/ZY369, as a refence.

Your email was selected from a database of email, listed from around the global, and it was selected at random, picking your email as one so your emarge a lucky win. Note: that your prize is protected by a hardcover insurance policy by GEO TRUST INSURANCE COMPANY, which makes it impossible to deduct any amount from the money before it is remitted to you. This means that the charges cannot be deducted from the prize and hence must be provided by you before your prize is transferred to you.
Also be reminded that the deadline for the claiming of winnings is exactly one week after the receipt of this email. After this period, your cash prize will be deemed to have been forfeited by you and will be rolled over to the next draw of the next edition of the lottery,should the courier charges be left unpaid.
At the expiration of the time given to you to effect the courier payment charges ,we would return your funds to the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY organization,and all further contact with you will be servered.should you want to contact us after the expiration time you would be refered to your fiduciary agent.
Thank you for contacting GLOBAL COURIER SERVICE

BEST REGARDS
MR. MARK SMITH
(DISPATCH OFFICER)
GLOBAL COURIER COMPANY.
_________________________________________________________________
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