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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: =?Windows-1252?Q?FREE_LOTTERY_YOU_HAVE_WON_GBP_=A31
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:23:58 +0100
Subject: =?Windows-1252?Q?YOU_HAVE_WON_GBP_=A31,000,000.00_?=



WORLD CUP 2010 FREE LOTTERY,HEADQUARTER, UNITED KINGDOM.=====================Winning NO: XB3/701/LNRCBatch NO: 905534213/255Ref NO: 7458222754=====================Dear Lucky Winner,We are pleased to announce your email address as one of the 200 lucky winners in the Free Lotto draw held on the 11th AUG 2007. All 200 winning addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 100,000,000 {ONE HUNDRED MILLION} international emails addresses.Consequently, you have therefore been approved for a total payout of GBP £1,000,000.00 (ONE MILLION POUNDS) only. Your email address emerged along side with 199 others as a category of winner in this year's Annual Draw.The world cup lottery 2010 is proudly sponsored by the Microsoft Corporation, Coca Cola, Nokia, MTN, the Intel Group, Toyota,Toshiba. The world cup free lottery draw is held once in every four years interval. And is also organized to encourage the use of internet and computers.We are proud to say that over GBP £25 Million Pounds are won annually in more than 150 countries world-wide.For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential until you claim your prize money.This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned.Fill the form below to enable us process you winning prizeNAME.ADDRESS.PHONE NO.OCCUPATION.AGE.SEX.COUNTRY.CONTACT MR. THOMAS FREEMAN FOR CONFIRMATION!!!NAME: MR. THOMAS FREEMANEMAIL:worldscups2010freelottery@yahoo.com Sincerely, Mrs. Larisa HullPromotions ManagerCongratulations once again !!!
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