419 scam: "UNESCO International Programme" <unescoorg@aggies.com> RE: Notification of US$1,200,000.00 payment

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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:
- "international lottery programme" (no such lottery exists)
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "00,000.00" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
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!
This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +448447742984

Fraud email example:

From: "UNESCO International Programme" <unescoorg@aggies.com>
Reply-To: avsagrario@terrapins.com
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:02:42 -0700
Subject: RE: Notification of US$1,200,000.00 payment

Dear sir,

RE: Notification of US$1,200,000.00 payment

This is to officially notify you that you have been selected by the board
of trustees of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) as one of the winners of US$1,200,000.00 prize money
in the international global literacy lottery programme held on Wednesday
12th August 2009.

Participants of this international lottery programme were selected
randomly through computer balloting system drawn from over 350,000 company
and private sector individuals emails from Australia, New Zealand, Africa,
Europe, North America, South America and Asia as part of the 2009 global
literacy and communications support program held in the United Kingdom.

For the immediate collection of your US$1,200,000.00 prize money with
reference number UNESCO/IGL-09027, kindly contact today directly by email
or telephone our Payment Coordinator in the United Kingdom:

Mrs. Allen Verena Sagrario
3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL,United Kingdom
Telephone: +44-844-774-2984
E-mail: avsagrario@terrapins.com

Due to the mix up of some names and entries, we ask that you keep this
award strictly private from public notice until you have claimed your
US$1,200,000.00 to avoid transfer complications.

Your US$1,200,000.00 prize money must be claimed before 30th September
2009, after this date all unclaimed Winnings will be rolled over and
returned back to the treasury.

All correspondences to Payment Coordinator should have this email sent
along with it along with your Contact Address, Country of residence and
your Email address.
Furthermore, should there be any change of your Contact Address, do inform
the Payment Coordinator as soon as possible.

Once again congratulations.

Yours faithfully,

Harris Steiner, Vice-President Awards
UNESCO,1, Rue Mollies 75732 Paris Cedex 15 France.

Anti-fraud resources:

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