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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: "02 TELECOMMUNICATIONS AWARD" <test@shyouth.net>
Reply-To: <o2mbiawrd@live.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2011 18:47:48 -0000
Subject: O2 TELCOMM HAS AWARDED YOU £1,000,000.00 GBP

Dear Lucky Winner,

o2 Telecoms has Awarded you GBP 1,000,000 in 2011 Anniversary draw, Your PIN Number to claim your award is (o281) email us at o2mbiawrd@live.com o2 Telecoms online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo, Aol, Walla, Gmail, Russian Mail and Hotmail and few from other e-mail providers. Six people are selected yearly to benefit from this promotion and you are one of the Selected Winners.

Yours faithful.
o2 Telecoms Management

Anti-fraud resources: