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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: barristerabukarmusa@freenet.de
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:12:11 +0100
Subject: ATTENTION TO THE OWNER OF THIS EMAIL ADDRESS


INTERNATIONAL LOTTO ORGANIZATION
Vour Mousque Bp Ponto 4B 32258,

Cotonou Republic du Benin
UNCLAIMED LOTTO PRIZE PAYMENT NOTICE


ATTENTION TO THE OWNER OF THIS EMAIL ADDRESS;
You are a winner in the
2nd category of our Euroafriq free Net Lottery Promotional award draws
held December 31st 2007.I am writing in respect to your lotto winning
prize of $1.450,810.00(One Million Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Eight
Hundred and Ten US Dollars only) which you won through the email ballot
draws in our Euroafriq Lotto Award in 2007 in the second category prize
winnings category.

We wish to inform you that your total prize money
of $1.450,810.00 has been returned to us by our Lotto claims agent as
unclaimed prize after their initial letter to your address for your
payment was not successful.You are here by requested to contact our
Treasury Office on telephone 00229-9348-7039 or email:
(lotto.treasuryofficedpt@yahoo.fr) for your immediate payment.

Our
Treasury officer\'s name is Richard Peterson, so refer this to him and
contact him immediately for your unclaimed lotto prize payment to you.
You should contact our Treasury Officer as directed above for your
payment, and do notify me as soon as you received your payment from our
Treasurer.

Thanks,
Dr. Martin Luis Sanchez.
President; Int\'l Lotto
Org.
Unbegrenzter Speicher, Top-Spamschutz, 120 SMS und eigene
E-MailDomain
inkl.
http://office.freenet.de/dienste/emailoffice/produktuebersicht/power/mail/index.html


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