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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: "SPANISH END OF THE YEAR AWARD" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <grupocatalan@comerciales.es>
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:22:45 -0600
Subject: SPANISH END OF THE YEAR INTERNATIONAL E-MAIL AWARD PROMOTION PROGRAM 2009

INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY COMMISSION
FROM THE DESK OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS / PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT
Plaza Romano N°19 Planta 5,
28011, MADRID, SPAIN

Attn: Lucky Winner,

We wish to congratulate you over your Email success in our computer
Balloting. Your email address drew and has won you the sum of 615,810
Euros (Six Hundred and Fifteen Thousand Eight Hundred and Ten Euros) in
SPANISH END OF THE YEAR INTERNATIONAL E-MAIL AWARD PROMOTION PROGRAM 2009 in
cash credited to file with WINNING REFERENCE NUMBER: ESP/WIN/008/05/10/MA;
BATCH NUMBER:EURO/1007/444/606/08; LUCKY NUMBER:23-7-2-6-12-9;
SERIAL NUMBER:6594 and PROMOTION DATE : 9th December 2009. All Participants
were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 300,000
companies and 600,000 individual email addresses selected from the web. To
claim your winning prize, you are to contact the appointed agent directly
as soon as possible for the immediate release of your winnings, with your
full names,telephone numbers,contact address and fax (If available) below:

GRUPO CATALANA OCCIDENTE S.A.
MR. JONATHAN FERDNANDO GOMEZ
TEL:0034,6031,25674
FAX:0034,9176,93011
Email: grupocatalan@luckymail.com

Congratulations once again from all our staff.

Mrs. Patricia Douet (Lottery co-ordinator )
Internation Lottery commission.
Madrid, 10th December 2009

Anti-fraud resources: