419 scam: "British American Tobacco Companies South Africa"<worldcuploto@7ka.lv> Your email address has won you $2.8 Million Dollars

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million united states dollars" (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.
- +2347028718980
This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- worldcuploto@sify.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "British American Tobacco Companies South Africa" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <worldcuploto@sify.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:40:44 -0700
Subject: Your email address has won you $2.8 Million Dollars

Attention: Email Owner,

Are you the owner of this email address or do you have authorized access to it in the absence of the owner? If yes then have every reason to rejoice as the result of the lottery draw held to promote South African 2010 World Cup, free ticket and online e-mail address draws has just been released and guess what?

Your email is among the two lucky winners, that won ($2.8Million United States Dollars) Each in the just concluded draw held to promote South African 2010 World Cup, sponsored by British American Tobacco Companies South Africa.

For Prize Claiming, Contact our payment center.

Name: Rev Johnson Ben
Tel: +2347028718980
Email: worldcuploto@sify.com

And also provide the following information for the processing of your winning fund.

NAME:................................
ADDRESS:.............................
NATIONALITY:.........................
SEX:.................................
AGE:.................................
FAX:.................................
OCCUPATION:..........................
COMPANY:..............................

Your Email Attached to Ticket No: (7YZ206) and Ballot No: (BT120/A) Winners must send His or Her Names,Address,Telephone Number and Means of Identification (International Passport or Drivers License) to claim officer, via email to process the Immediate payment of your prize.

Congratulations once again.
>From British American Tobacco Companies
South Africa.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam