419 scam: "FDV & ECOWAS Committee Payout Office" <info@msn.com> Dear Beneficiary,

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "fondazione di vittorio" (not involved with lotteries)
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- "(ecowas)" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "ecowas " (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "abuja" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
1. They don't notify winners by email.
2. You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
3. They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
4. They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
5. They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
6. They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
7. They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!

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:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam