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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: "mr.frank"<frank@o2.pl>
Reply-To: <prize.notice.section@webmail.co.za>
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2009 08:20:18 +0100
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS !!! ( TREAT AS URGENT )

MICROSOFT INTERNET LOTTERY


CONGRATULATIONS!

YOU WON $800,000.00!


MICROSOFT Corporation, gives members random cash prizes. Today, your e-mail account is randomly selected as one of the
5 top winners’ accounts who will get cash prizes from us. We are happy to inform you that you have won a
prize money of (Eight Hundred Thousand US Dollars) $800,000.00) for the month of August Lottery win
promotion which is organized by Microsoft Corporation Worldwide every month.

MICROSOFT Corporation ! collects all the e-mail ID of the people that are online, among the millions that
subscribe to the world e-mail we only select five people every month as our winners through electronic
balloting System without the winner applying, we are congratulating you for being 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 communities where they have operational base.

Furthermore your details(e-mail address) falls within our Spanish representative office in GHANA, as indicated
in your play coupon and our prize of $800,000.00 USD will be released to you from this regional branch
office in GHANA,

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE

These are your identification numbers.........

Batch number....................Lwh 09445
Lotto number.....................Lwh09446
Winning number................Lwh09447
Serial number....................Lwh009482

To begin your claims, kindly contact the Fiduciary Agent Dr. Ralph Winter of Microsoft Corporation Worldwide- LOTTERY BOARD GHANA on email
address:

prize.notice.section@webmail.co.za
Tel: +233-246614813

You are required to forward to him, 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 NUMBERS/CELL
9.FAX NUMBER(IF ANY)
10.MARITAL STATUS
11.WINNING NUMBER, BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER.
12 THE MONTH YOU WON
13 AMOUNT WON

As soon as you contact your 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 abuse of this programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel.

Yours Sincerely,


Dr. BARRY KNIGHT (PHD)
LOTTO CO-ORDINATOR.

Anti-fraud resources: