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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:

Fraud email example:

From: "FACEBOOK LOTTERY 2013" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <onlinefacebookprogs00@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2013 01:28:21 -0000
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS FROM FACEBOOK ONLINE LOTTERY....

Facebook Online International Lottery
From: The Desk Of the President.
International Promotions / Prize Award.
Category: 2nd

Greetings to you Dear lucky winner. We are pleased to inform you of the
result of the just concluded annual final draws held on the 5th of March
2013 by Facebook group in cash promotion to encourage the usage of Facebook
worldwide. Your name was among the 20 lucky winners who won $950.000.00USD
(Nine hundred and Fifty Thousand United State Dollars) each on the Facebook
group promotion award attached to Lucky Number (FB-225-7736), Ticket Number
(FB-172-60), Batch Number (FB-0281/544) and Serial Number (99352748-2012).

The online draws was conducted by a random selection of emails you were
picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the Facebook in
other to claim your $950.000.00usd the lottery program which is a new
innovation by Facebook, is aimed at saying a big thank you to all our users
for making Facebook their number one means to connect, communicate, relate
and hook up with their families and friends over the years.

This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and
unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants and scam artists all
participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over
20,000 companies and 30,000,000 individuals email addresses from all over
the world. This promotional program takes place every three years. You may
be rest assured that this is real and legal. There are some scam artists
around but thanks to the FBI, 216 of them have been arrested.

You are required to contact the head of our disbursement department in the
person of Mr. Lincoln Howard via this email address
(onlinefacebookprogs00@gmail.com) with information below for the complete
processing of your Winning certificate and further information regarding the
disbursement of your lottery winnings.

Full Name:
Contact Address:
Mobile Number:
Occupation:
Marital Status:
Sex:
Age:
Country of Residence:
Nationality:
Lucky Number:
Ticket Number:
Batch Number:
Serial Number:
Your Email Address:

Furthermore, if there is any change in email addresses please contact us on
time. Do not reply to this email, Contact the disbursement department with
the email provided above.

Note: if you are not interested please do not bother to reply.

Thanks and more Congratulations! We wish you a prosperous New Year ahead!

Regards,
Mr. Wright Jones
Announcer

Anti-fraud resources: