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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: "ELECTRONIC U.S LOTTERY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <anthonywilliams@london.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:24:11 -0000
Subject: HELLO

Dear Winner,

We are pleased to announce you as one of the 3 lucky winners in the Electronic U.S. Lottery draw held on the 14th of February, 2011. All 3 winning addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 5,000,000 international emails. Your email address emerged alongside 2 others as a 3rd category winner in this draw.

Thus, you have therefore been approved for a total pay out of US$1,200,000.00 (One Million, Two Hundred Thousand U.S. Dollars Only). The following particulars are attached to your lotto payment order:

(i) Winning numbers: 81, 2, 10, 0, 17, 77
(ii) Serial number: EX05-10-10
(iii) Lotto batch number: CCF89777
(iv) Reference number: EUSL-4112

Please contact the under listed claims officer for as soon as possible with your Name, Contact Telephone Number, Age, Occupation and Country of Residence for immediate release of your winnings:

Mr. Anthony Williams
Claims Manager
Email: anthonywilliams@london.com
Tel number: +44 7011184638
Fax number: +44 7006065018

This is to give you a brief explanation of how you emerged a winner in the Electronic U.S Lottery. The third category draws of Electronic U.S Lottery is a promotional draw, whereby participants do not have to buy tickets to formally enter into the draws, about 5,000,000 international and local emails were selected randomly by a computer ballot system and entered into the draws, you consequently emerged as one of the 3 winners in this category. This entitles you to a cash prize of US$1,200,000.00

Once again on behalf of all our staff, CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Sincerely,

Kimberly Dantzler
Promotions Manager
Tel/fax number: +1 206-222-2140

Anti-fraud resources: