419 scam: "Briams Hague"<smith@live.com> Hello

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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")
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!

Fraud email example:

From: "Briams Hague" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <heritagefundsclaims@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 19:37:24 +0100
Subject: Hello

ATTN: Prize Winner,

I am Foreign Service Officer from the Heritage Fund
Organization. I am the claims officer assigned to your winning case. I
wish to congratulate you and to let you know that you are a lucky person to
have emerge as one of the winner in our online Program.

Your e-mail address was randomly selected along with 5 others from over
50,000 e-mail addresses entries provided by our international e-mail
providers world wide. Each e-mail address was attached to a ticket number
as winners of £ 1,000.000.00 (One Million Great Britains Pounds Sterling).

In order to finally verify your winning and to proceed with the claim
process of your winning, please provide us with information below:

1. Name in full:
2. Address/Country:
3. Age/Sex:
4 Tel/Fax
5. Occupation:

Upon receipt of your information, we shall proceed with the claims process
of your winning.

We look forward to receiving your response.

Regards
HERITAGE FUND
7 Holbein Place
London, SW1W 8NR

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam