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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: "The National Lottery" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrpatrick_johnson@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 03:46:47 +0800
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION

The National Lottery P O Box 1010 Liverpool, L70 1NL UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)
 
Ref No: UK/9420X2/68
 
Batch No: 07410512436924369
 
WINNING NOTIFICATION:National U.K lottery wishes to inform you the resultant the E-mail address ballot lottery international program by Great Britain held on 19th May 2011 Your email account have been picked as a winner of SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS ONLY.
 
Dear Winner,
 
This result is now released to you on 23rd May and your email address attached in the A Category lucky ball and bonus ball participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from Microsoft users from company and individual email addresses users.
Be advice to keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money remitted to you.
 
This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. All winning must be claimed before June 30th 2011 after this date all funds will be. Returned to European Union Treasury as unclaimed. Please note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your reference number in all correspondence.
 
Congratulations from the staff and thank you for being part of email account users program. Please contact your claims agent Mr Patrick Johnson at (mrpatrick_johnson@hotmail.co.uk) to direct you on how to claim the your prize and please fill the application form below for approval of your lottery prize as soon as that is done forward it to your claims agent.
 
NAME......................................
BATCH NUMBER................................
REFERENCE NUMBER...............................
AMOUNT WON...................................
DATE OF BIRTH..................................
RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:...........................
SEX..............................................
MARITAL STATUS.................................
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN.............................
OCCUPATION.....................................
COMPANY NAME..............................
TELEPHONE..................................
EMAIL........................................
 
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Julie Van Hans, Executive.(Euro Lottery Intern.) Dr. P. Swier, Mr. Gerald Goodman (Manager Foreign Operations), Mr. Franklyn Van Der Weijden (Manager Domestic Banking Operations), Dr. James Williams (Director International Credit Department), Mrs. Sandra Murphy (Executive), Mr. Michael Cole (Executive), Mr. Stephen Boer.(Chairman). Copyright  2011.
British Lottery International
MRS JULIE VAN

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