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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: "FDV & ECOWAS Committee Payout Office" <info@msn.com>
Reply-To: fdvecowas30@w.cn
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:16:25 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Dear Beneficiary,




FDV & ECOWAS Committee
Payout Office
Gariki Avenue Abuja
West Africa

Dear Beneficiary,

We wish to congratulate you and formally inform you that you have been
selected to receive the sum of US$250,000 (Two Hundred and fifty thousand
United States Dollars) in this year's charity donation, organized by
Fondazione Di Vittorio and Economy Community Of West Africa States
(ECOWAS) Committee.

The idea of this donation is that within ten years from now there will be
notable richness among many unusual people around the world. This will
give many people the opportunity to get their lives to a stage where they
had always wanted. Kindly note that you will only be chosen to receive the
donation once. which means that subsequent yearly donation will not get
to you again so its your choice to spend the donation wisely on something
that will last you a long time.

You should note that your email address in addition to millions of company
and individual email addresses were extracted with a software and the
addresses were scrutinized with a ballot system and after the process, 10
email addresses were selected and they were shared into 3 categories
respectively and which you are a winner in the 2nd category of US$250,000.

However, FDV & ECOWAS Committee has been notified of this development and
the status of your claim.

Below is the legal and official procedure on how you will get your charity
cash donation:

1. Fill the attached form with the format below and send back to us your
fulling filled informations.

Full Names:
Age: Sex:
Contact Address:
Country:
Occupation:
Email:
Telephone number:
Amount Won:$250,000.00

This process is vital and urgent following the instruction from our
clients that all donations should be claimed not later than 5days from now
otherwise your cash donation will be returned back to its original source
which means you have lost your cash award.

Once again accept our congratulations and we look forward to hearing from
you soon.

Best Regards
Barry Henry






Anti-fraud resources: