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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: Johnson williams <johnson_williams222@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 19:18:38 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS.!!!


CONGRATULATIONS !!!!
YOU WON £800.000.00 POUNDS!

YOU HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED AS THE ONE OF 12 TOP LUCKY WINNERS !!!

Yahoo! Mail gives members random cash prizes. Today, your account is randomly selected as the one of 12 top winners accounts who will get cash prizes from us.We are happy to inform you that you have won a prize money of (Eight Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds (£800,000.00 GBP) for the month of August, 2007 lottery win promotion which is organized by yahoo messenger .com every month.

YAHOO, collects all the mail id of the people that are online and offline on yahoo messenger, among the millions that subscribe to yahoo messenger we only select five people every month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying,we are congratulating you for been one of the people selected.All participant were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually.
This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomorate of some
multinational companies as part of their social responsibility to the
citizens in the commmunities where they have operational base.
Further more your details(e-mail address) falls within our British representative office in United Kingdom , as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of £800,000.00 GBP will be released to you from this regional branch office in UK.
We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year
high stakes for £1.3 Billion GBP international draw.
HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE
These are your identification numbers.......................

Batch number.....................Lwh 09445
Lotto number.......................Lwh09446
Winning number...................Lwh09447

To begin your claims, kindly contact the Yahoo Financial Controller, Dr.JOHNSON WILLIAMS at this email addressJOHNSON_WILLIAMS222(@yahoo.com)
You are required to forward him with the following details:

1.FULL NAME..........................................
2.COUNTRY OF ORIGIN...........................
3.PRESENT ADRESS...............................
4.POSTCODE...........................................
5.DIRTH OF BIRTH...................................
6.OCCUPATION.........................................
7.SEX........................................................
8.TELEPHONE NUMBER..............................
9.FAX NUMBER(IF ANY).............................
10.MARITAL STATUS.................................
11.WINNING NUMBER,BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER..........

As soon as you contact the Financial Controller, he will advise you on what to do in order to get your prize money.

For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information
confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your
prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid
double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel.

Congratulations once more!!

Yours Sincerely,

DR. .JOHNSON WILLIAMS..
LOTTO CO-ORDINATOR.
The Yahoo.com staff
Yahoo.com http://www.yahoo.com

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