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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: "Prize Award Dept..." <gparnell@cut.iserver.net>
Reply-To: frankvboss@aim.com
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:08:47 -0000
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION FOR CATEGORY "A" CYBER LOTTO DRAWS

CONGRATULATIONS FROM MARKT INTERNATIONAL NL

*Ref Number: PW EH 9590 OG 0612
*Batch Number: 563881545-NL/2008
*Ticket Number: PA 3502 /8707-01
*Amount Won: USD$2,500,000.00.

Attn: LUCKY WINNER

We are pleased to inform you of results of our cyber lotto draw of the
promotional International lottery Programs.

The online electronic-raffle draws was conducted from an exclusive list of
25,000,000 e-mail accounts picked by an advanced automated computer search
from the world wide web.

However,no tickets were sold.

After the automated computer ballot collection, your e-mail address emerged
as a winner (category "A") with the following numbers attached
(Ref Number: EH 9590 OG 0612, Batch Number: 563881545-NL/2008 and Ticket
Number: PA 3502 /8707-01.)

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 sum!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Your prize award has been insured with your e-mail address and will be
transferred to you immediately upon which you meet verifications.

To file in for the processing of your prize winnings, you are advised to
contact our certified claims agent (category "A") on the address below:

***************************************************

CLAIMS AGENT:
Name: Frank Van Boss
Email:frankvboss@aim.com
Tel: + 31 616 101 809
Fax: + 31 847 354 965

***************************************************

You are advised to provide him with the following information:

First name:
Last Name:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:

You are to keep all lotto information confidential, especially your
reference numbers and the password of your E-mail address. Since we do not
know you, if an impostor hacks your E-mail account ID and claims your money
without our knowledge, we shall not be liable. Double claims will not be
entertained so be careful. Furthermore, should there be any change of
address do inform our agent as soon as possible.


Congratulations!!! And thank you for being a user of the World Wide Web.

Yours Faithfully,
Mary Van Dotcha
Lottery Coordinator.
Thank you and congratulations!!!


PRIVACY STATEMENT

1. Personal and winning data provided by winners to THIS PROMO remains known
ONLY to the winner and INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONAL PROGRAMS ORGANISATION.

2a. All e-mail addresses, contact information, photographs and/or personal
data of winners SHALL NOT be published or disclosed on ANY public or in any
other public place or via any medium accessible to the
public.

2b. All e-mail addresses, contact information, photographs and/or personal
data of winners SHALL NOT be disclosed to or made available to any third
party
or agent outside the claims office.

3. All e-mail addresses, contact information and/or personal data of winners
are kept in an isolated database server protected from any external access
using SSL locking on 6th level binary pharse. This data is made accessible
ONLY to MARKT INTERNATIONAL CYBER LOTTERY staff and authorized agents
directly
involved with the processing of winners claims.

4. Winners are advised to keep their winning information away from public
knowledge, in order to avoid any double claims, impersonation or
misrepresentation during the claims process.MARKT INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONAL
PROGRAMS will not be liable for any misplaced claims as a owing to your
negligence or publishing of your winning information.


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