419 scam: United Nations Trust Fund <infodesk@un.org> *U.N Claims Transfer Department*

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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:

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:
- "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million united state dollars" (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)
- ",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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
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.
- untfclaimsoffice@aol.com (AOL; can be used from anywhere worldwide)

Fraud email example:

From: United Nations Trust Fund <infodesk@un.org>
Reply-To: untfclaimsoffice@aol.com
Date: Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:30:14 +0200
Subject: *U.N Claims Transfer Department*

UNITED NATION TRUST FUNDS ©

CONGRATULATIONS! ! ! !

Dear Winner,

We are pleased to announce to you that you are one of the four lucky
winners in the just concluded UNITED NATIONS 2011 AWARD draws held on
February 10th 2011. All four winning addresses were randomly selected
from a batch of 5,000,000 international email addresses database. Your
email address emerged alongside three others as a Last category winner
of the second draws for this year.

Consequently, you have therefore been approved for a total pay out of
$1,000,000,00 USD (One Million United State Dollars) only.

The following particulars are attached to your lotto payment order:

(i) BATCH NUMBER: UN-SZ/40/RSA-0079
(ii) REFERENCE NUMBER: SZ231/RSA0079
(iii) PIN: 3555

Here are the details required from you:
YOUR FULL NAME:..................
ADDRESS :..................
COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE:..................
OCCUPATION:..................
AGE:..................
MOBILE NUMBER:..................
EMAIL: ..................

Please contact the under listed claims officer as soon as possible
with your details for the immediate release of your winnings:
INTERNATIONAL CLAIMS DEPARTMENT MANAGER

Contact Person: Name: Mr James Young
Tel: +60104676420
Email: untfclaimsoffice@aol.com

N.B:
1. All claims are nullified after 15 working days from date of email received.
2. Your Ref number must be in all your mails with the claims officer.
3. Do inform the claims officer of any change of names or addresses.

Sara Mohamed.

------------------------------ ------------------------------
------------------------------ ------------------------------
------------------------------ -----------------------------
It is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and to
minimize identification difficulties to advise you to keep this
information confidential until your claim is processed successfully
and to avoid unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants to
please note that you will be Required to pay for the issuance of your
winning certificate and all winnings must be claimed not later than
20th March, 2011.After this date all unclaimed Winnings will be null
and void. In Order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications
remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers In all
correspondence. Furthermore, should there be any change of address do
inform our agents as soon as possible. Congratulations once more and
thank you for being part of our U.N promotional program.Note: Anybody
under the age of 18 is automatically disqualified.

Copyright ©1994 - 2011 U.N All rights reserved
U.N-Strasse 20,
P.O. Box 8044 Frankfurt, Germany

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam