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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: "UK National Lottery" <uknlclaimsunit@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: uknl.claimsunit@hotmail.co.uk
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 11:14:38 +0100
Subject: CASH PRIZE: =?iso-8859-1?b?ozEsMjAwLDAwMC4wMA==?= GBP

UK NATIONAL LOTTERY DESK
TICKET NUMBER: 112-0745-810-264
REFERENCE NO: ACCU/2007-200
CASH PRIZE: £1,200,000.00 GBP

Congratulations,

We use this medium to notify you of the lottery prize of 1.2 Million
GBP won by your e-mail address, in the 2010 edition of the UK National
Lottery draw that was held on the 1st of March, 2010. Kindly contact
Our Payment Officer, below via e-mail to commence your claims process.

Mr. Adams Johnson
Email: uknl.claimsunit@hotmail.co.uk

Signed,
Notification Department.

Anti-fraud resources: