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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: " YAHOO EMAIL PROMOTION 2010" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrgeorgesmith07@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:16:14 +0200
Subject: CONGRATULATION!!!!!!!

 
Yahoo Email
Incoperation
Baley House, Har Road
Sutton, Greater London
SM1 4te
United Kingdom UK
 
Office Hours 9am - 5pm GTM London Time
 
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand dollars for the 2010 Yahoo Email Seasonal promotion which is organized by YAHOO EMAIL INC & WINDOWS LIVE.YAHOO & MICROSOFT PROMOTIONAL PROGRAM, collects all the email addresses of the people their email Addresses are active online, among the millions that are active online.
 
we only select five people as our winners through our Yahoo Microsoft Ballot Selection System Unit .We congratulate you for being one of the people selected on our Yahoo members registration file list and other Domain Subscribers..
 
PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
You are to contact your Claims Agent on or before your date of Claim, Winners Shall be paid in accordance with his/her Settlement Center.
Yahoo members Email promotion Prize must be claimed no later than 5 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited. These are your identification numbers:
 
Batch number.....................YM 09102XN Reff number................... ....YM35447XN Winning number.................. .YM09788
 
These numbers fall within the our West Africa Regional Headquarter-Nigeria Center you are requested to contact our West Africa Regional Office Nigeria Co-ordinator MR.GEORGE SMITH and send your winning identification numbers to him,
 
NAME: MR GEORGE SMITH
E-Mail: mrgeorgesmith07@hotmail.com
 
 
You are therefore advise to send the following information to the West Africa Nigeria Co-ordinator to facilitate them and process the transfer of your fund.
 
1. Full name.......... 2. Country.............3. Contact Address.........4. Telephone Number........5. Marital Status........................ ...
6. Occupation.................... .7. Age.........................8. Religion .............................. ..9. Gender ....................
 
Best Regard
Mrs Joy Williams
Congratulations!! once again.
Yahoo! UK & Ireland

Anti-fraud resources: