419 scam: "HERITAGE FUND"<info@heritage.org> Dear Award Winner

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- ",000,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "00,000.00" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
1. They don't notify winners by email.
2. You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
3. They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
4. They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
5. They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
6. They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
7. They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- heritagefunds20101@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "HERITAGE FUND" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <heritagefunds20101@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2011 18:22:44 +0100
Subject: Dear Award Winner

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Content-Type:text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding:7bit

The attached message from HERITAGE FUND <info@heritage.org> (<info@heritage.org>)
was determined by the Spam Blocker to be spam based on a score
of 18.8 where anything above 5.0 is spam.

------17393378_060105_1293993209903
Content-Type:message/rfc822
Content-Transfer-Encoding:7bit
Content-Disposition:inline

Reply-To: <heritagefunds20101@hotmail.com>
From: "HERITAGE FUND"<info@heritage.org>
Subject: Dear Award Winner
Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2011 18:22:44 +0100
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="Windows-1251"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 110204-0, 02/04/2011), Outbound message
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean

Hello,
We the Board of Directors of Heritage Fund Organization brings to your notice that your
email address have been awarded the sum of 1,000,000.00GBP by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
To process the claim of your award funds, you are required to reply to this message and
provide us with information’s below;

1. Full name
2. Address:
3. Age:
4. Occupation:
5. Tel:

Upon receipt of the above information from you, we shall proceed with the processing of your
award funds. Congratulations once again from all members and staff of our Organization.

Regards,
Mrs. Carole Lesley Souter
Executive(Online Coordinator)
------17393378_060105_1293993209903--

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam