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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" <internationalprizeawarddept4@yahoo.de>
Date: Sat, 01 Sep 2007 02:11:44 -0100
Subject: YOUR EMAIL WON !!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

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
2500,000,000 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:
SURF 90 ES 9414,Batch Number: 483881545-NL/2007 and Ticket Number: PP 3802
/8907-01

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: Hanz Daniel
Email: surflottery_office@yahoo.de
!! internet_surfaward@yahoo.de
Phone: +31 619 729 459
*************************************
You are advice to provide him with the following information:
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:

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!!!

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