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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "WEBMAIL CUSTOMER CARE" <web-upgrading@att.net>
Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2010 11:26:13 +0800
Subject: TERMINATION OF YOUR ACCOUNT AVOID CLOSURE

Your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit which is 20GB as set by
your administrator, you are currently running on 20.9GB, you may not
be able to send or receive new mail until you re-validate your mailbox.
To re-validate your mailbox please fill in the details below for immediate
re-validation.

Email Address:
Username:
Password:
Comfirm Password:

Thanks
Pollett, Lisa mail account
ICQ System Administrator
Technical Support/Maintenances Team TSR

Anti-fraud resources: