419 scam: "COCA COLA COMPANY" <info@cocacola.com> Coca Cola Notification

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
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 agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- ",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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
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.
- ccoca-colaunit5540@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "COCA COLA COMPANY" <info@cocacola.com>
Reply-To: ccoca-colaunit0021@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:41:12 +0700
Subject: Coca Cola Notification

THE COCA COLA COMPANY
PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD DEPT
COCA COLA AVENUE STAMFORD
BRIDGE LONDON
SW1V 3DW UNITED KINGDOM.

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual final
draws held on 15th of April 2012 in London, UK by the Coca-Cola in
conjunction with the British American Tobacco Worldwide Promotion; your email
address was among the 20 Lucky winners who won £1,000,000.00GBP each on the
COCA-COLA COMPANY PROMOTION. However the results were released today 16th
April 2012 and your email was attached to ticket number (CPWYZ2010) and
ballot number (BT: 12052010/20). The on-line draws was conducted by a random
selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 29,031 E-mail
addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated
random computer search from the Internet.

However, no tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to
different ticket numbers for representation and privacy. The selection
process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email
selection machine (TOPAZ) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses
drawn from all the continents of the world. This AWARD is approved by the
British Gaming Board Council and also licensed by the International
Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR).This AWARD is the 3rd of its kind and
we intend to sensitize the public. In other to claim your £1,000,000.00GBP
POUNDS prize winning! Please contact our claims agent for claims with the
contact below Agent.

Dr. David GREEN
Email: ccoca-colaunit5540@hotmail.com

PLEASE FILL THE VERIFICATION FORM BELOW FOR CLAIMS.
1. FULL NAMES..............
2. COUNTRY................
3. STATE:................
4. HOME ADDRESS........
5. MOBILE TELEPHONE NUMBERS.......
6. MARITAL STATUS.........
7. OCCUPATION.............POSITION......
8. AGE.....SEX............

Congratulations!! Once again.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Sophia Sanders

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam