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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: "GOOGLE CORPORATIONS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mr_williamsmith@gala.net>
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:48:26 -0800
Subject: GOOGLE AWARD NOTIFICATION

Google Corporation©
Belgrave House
76 Buckingham
Palace Road
London SW1W 9TQ
United Kingdom
 
 
Winning No: GUK/877/798/0147
Batch No: GUK/699/33/1977
 
 
GOOGLE AWARD NOTIFICATION.
 
 
We wish to congratulate you once again on this note, for being part of our
winners selected this year. This promotion was set-up to encourage the
active users of the Google search engine and the Google ancillary
services.
 
 
Hence we do believe with your winning prize, you will continue to be
active and patronage to the Google search engine. Google is now the
biggest search engine worldwide and in an effort to make sure that it
remains the most widely used search engine, we ran an online e-mail beta
test which your email address won 450,000.00 (Four Hundred And Fifty
Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling)
 
 
We wish to formally announce to you that you have successfully passed the
requirements, statutory obligations, verifications, validations and
satisfactory report Test conducted for all online winners.
 
 
A winning cheque will be issued in your name by Google Corporations,
You have therefore won the entire sum of 450,000.00Gbp (Four
Hundred And Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling) and also a
certificate of prize claims will be sent along side your winning cheque.
 
 
You are advised to contact your Foreign Transfer Manager with the
following details to avoid unnecessary delay and complications:
 
 
Google Corporation
Verification Manager.
Mr.Williams Smiths
Email:
 
 
mr_williamsmith@msn.com
mr_williamsmith@gala.net
 
VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM.
 
 
(1) Your contact address.
(2) Your Tel/Fax numbers.
(3) Your Nationality/Country.
(4) Your Full Name/Sex.
(5) Occupation/Age.
(6) Ever won an online lottery?
(7)How do you feel as a winner?
 
 
The Google Corporations has discovered a huge number of double
claims due to winners informing close friends relatives and third parties
about their winning and also sharing their pin numbers. As a result of
this, these friends try to claim the lottery on behalf of the real
winners. The Google Corporations has reached a decision from
headquarters that any double claim discovered by the Lottery Board will
result to the canceling of that particular winning, making a loss for both
the double claimer and the real winner, as it is taken that the real
winner was the informer to the double claimer about the lottery.
 
 
So you are hereby strongly advised once more to keep your winnings strictly
confidential until you claim your prize.
 
 
Congratulations from the Staffs & Members of the Google interactive
Lotteries Board Commission.
 
 
Sincerely,
Google Corporations.

Anti-fraud resources: