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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: (sent from abused email account)
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 03:52:49 -0800
Subject:



Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria






=======================================================================================
Shell Industrial Area, Rumobiakani, Port Harcourt, Nigeria Tel: +234 703 151 4009
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Dear Winner,

We acknowledge the receipt of your mail with regard to the winning notification as earlier sent to your Email. The 2008 Shell Nigeria Email
Award is no doubt, a momentous achievement in the chequered history of
this Corporation. You have been Awarded US$3,000,000.00 (Three Million
United States Dollars)


On behalf of the entire staff of the Organization, I wish to congratulate all non-Governmental Organizations
who have in no little way contributed immensely towards the success of
this draw as well as taking concrete steps towards it's actualization.
All participants were selected randomly from World Email Directories.
This promotion is part of the financial empowerment programme of the
Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in it's struggle to
alleviate poverty.

While
basking in the euphoria of this achievement, I wish to seize this
opportunity to acquaint you with guidelines as you must follow in order
to complete your claims. On our part, we have a mandate to see you
through. We will work assiduously to realize this mandate as we respect
your views, opinions and most importantly protect your Privacy.

Please, Kindly provide us with the following information for Verification of your Prize;

Full name.......................................
Address.........................................
Age...............................................
Sex...............................................
Nationality......................................
Home Telephone #...........................
Mobile Telephone #..........................
E-mail address.................................
Marital Status..................................
Occupation......................................

NOTE: The following PIN# (Personal Identification Number) has been assigned to you and you are required to quote it in every mail that you send to us: SPDC-081511

You are
warned to keep your winning information to yourself until your fund is
released to you to avoid double claim which will lead to absolute
cancellation/termination of Award. We also do not tolerate Laxities and
inconsistency in claim.


Once again, We congratulate you for
this landmark achievement and implore you with the responsibility of
ensuring successful claims.

We shall get back to you with the Fund release Directives on our receipt of your personal details as requested above.

Kind Regards,
Philip Mathew
(Prize Administrator)
_________________________________________________________________
Color coding for safety: Windows Live Hotmail alerts you to suspicious email.
http://windowslive.com/Explore/Hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_safety_112008

Anti-fraud resources: