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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: THAILAND WORLD CYBER GAMES FORTUNE LOTTO DRAW <bkthai.1.draw@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: kingsunprivate.securityfirm@live.com
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:31:30 +0100
Subject: *****SPAM*****


Spam detection software, running on the system "mail.tugab.bg", has
identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message
has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or label
similar future email. If you have any questions, see
The administrator of that system for details.

Content preview: Attention Beneficiary. We are pleased to inform you of the
announcement made today, You are among the winners of the THAILAND WORLD
CYBER GAMES LOTTO PROMOTION Participants were selected through a computer
ballot system drawn from email addresses of individuals and companies from
all part of the world as part of our automobile [...]

Content analysis details: (8.9 points, 5.0 required)

pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
-1.8 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP
1.3 MISSING_HEADERS Missing To: header
1.3 FUZZY_GUARANTEE BODY: Attempt to obfuscate words in spam
1.9 BILLION_DOLLARS BODY: Talks about lots of money
1.3 FRT_GUARANTEE1 BODY: ReplaceTags: Guarantee (1)
0.0 BAYES_50 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 40 to 60%
[score: 0.4994]
1.2 ADVANCE_FEE_2 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
1.8 MISSING_SUBJECT Missing Subject: header
1.4 ADVANCE_FEE_3 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
0.6 ADVANCE_FEE_4 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
0.0 AWL AWL: From: address is in the auto white-list



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