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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: "Account Update" <declan.quinn4@mail.dcu.ie>
Reply-To: upgrad_account@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:18:16 +0200
Subject: Dear Email Account Owner

Dear Email Account Owner,


This message is from educational messaging center to all our email account
owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center.
We are deleting all our email accounts to create more space for new accounts.

To prevent your account from closure you will have to update it,below so
that we will know that it's a presently used account.

We have been sending this notice to all our email account owners and this
is the last notice/verification exercise.

CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW

Email Username : .......... ......

EMAIL Password : .................

Date of Birth : .................

Territory : .................

Country : .................

Warning!!! (hccnet.nl) Account owner that refuses to update his or her account
within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account.
Protect your privacy. Logout when you are done and completely exit your browser.

Thank you for using hccnet.nl!
Warning Code: VX2G99AAJ
............................................................................
............................................................................
NOTE: This message is authorize by the hccnet.nl email account protector
unit.Notification
message will be send back to you after verifying your account before account
could be reset. All right reserve.



Anti-fraud resources: