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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: MICROSOFT/YAHOO AWARDS <notification@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: agentrankovic@ciudad.com.ar
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:47:46 -0300 (CLST)
Subject: W201102/AYP872-05

============================
Ticket number: 67005568
Batch number: W201102/AYP872

============================

We are happy to inform you that you have won a prize money of Two
Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling (£250,000.00) in the All Webmail©/Yahoo! E-
mail promotion.

Your email address with ticket number: 67005568 and batch number: W201102/BATC872
was randomly selected among millions of email addresses of unions, associations, and corporate
bodies that subscribed to YAHOO, HOTMAIL, GMAIL and few from other e-mail providers/domains that
are active online. 12 people are selected monthly to benefit from this promotion and you are one of
the Selected Winners this month of February.

PAYMENT OF PRIZE/CLAIMS
All winners would receive
their prize money in cheque which would be delivered to their doorstep. All prize awards MUST be
claimed not later than three weeks from the date of notification. Any prize not claimed within this
period will be forfeited and returned to its source as unclaimed Prize/Fund.

To begin your claims,
kindly contact our claims agent on the email address below with your batch number and ticket
number.

agentrankovic@ciudad.com.ar
Name of Agent: David Rankovic

Mrs. Heather Matlin

Notification Officer

Anti-fraud resources: