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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: Howard Mariam <howardmariam007@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: dglspreston01@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 08:16:19 -0800 (PST)
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!YOU WON X1,200.000!


I have a new email address!You can now email me at: howardmariam007@yahoo.com



- Results You won £1,200.000! Yahoo! Mail congratulates you! Messenger YAHOO INTERNET LOTTERY CONGRATULATIONS!YOU WON £1,200.000!Yahoo! Mail gives members random cash prizes. Today, your account is randomly selected as the one of 12 top winners accounts who will get cash prizes from us.We are happy to inform you that you have won a prize money of (One Million Two Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds) (£1,200.000!)for the month of January Lottery win promotion which is organized by yahoo.messenger.com every month. YAHOO! collects all the mail id of the people that are online on yahoo messenger, among the millions that subscribe to yahoo messenger we only select five people every month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying,we are congratulating you for been one of the people selected.All participant were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually.This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomerate of some multinational companies as part of their social responsibility to the citizens in the commmunities where they have operational base. Further more your details (e-mail address) falls within our British representative office in United Kingdom, as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of £1,200.000! GBP will be released to you from this Regional Branch Office in The UK.We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year high stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw.HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE These are your identification numbers...Batch number...Lwh 09445 Lotto number...Lwh09446 Winning number...Lwh09447 To begin your claims, kindly contact the Fudiciary Agent at this email address (dglspreston01@gmail.com) You are required to forward him with the following details:1.FULL NAME 2.COUNTRY OF ORIGIN 3.PRESENT ADDRESS 4.SEX 5.DATE OF BIRTH 6.AGE 7.OCCUPATION 8.TELEPHONE NUMBER 9.FAX NUMBER(IF ANY)10.MARITAL STATUS 11.WINNING NUMBER,BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER.12 THE MONTH YOU WON...13 THE AMOUNT YOU WON....As soon as you contact the AGENT, he will advise you on what to do in order to get your prize money. Congratulations once more!! For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel.Yours Sincerely,Mrs.Mariam Howard (PHD)LOTTO CO-ORDINATOR.The Yahoo.com staff


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