419 Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam (2006-01)

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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.
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.
- euromillionprocessingofficer@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "EURO MILLION LOTTERY" <info@euromillion.com>
Reply-To: euromillionprocessingofficer@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2013 12:04:05 -0000 (GMT)
Subject: You have won
=?iso-8859-1?Q?=80_1=2C350.000.00_from_euro_million_lottery:?=

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You have won € 1,350.000.00 from euro million lottery:
Contact(euromillionprocessingofficer@gmail.com)for more information
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Ref Number: IR/90020X2/12
Batch Number: 15/25/1203
Ticket Number: 025-11464992-750

Dear Lucky Winner,
We are very pleased to hear from you, your email address brought you an
unexpected luck, your e-
mail address was selected and confirmed by our co-sponsor of Euro Millions
Lottery, which was
held in Malaysia. However, no tickets were sold but all email addresses
were assigned to
different ticket numbers for representation and privacy, all email
addresses used for this draw
was presented electronically by Microsoft international, Yahoo, Hotmail,
Google, e.t.c. Your
email address was electronically selected along side five other Winners,
your email subsequently
won you the sum of 1,350,000.00 Euro and consolation prizes which include
a Dell Inspiron 6400
Laptop, Euro Million Lottery Branded T-shirt, Euro Million Lottery Branded
Baseball cap. To begin
the claims processing of your prize winnings you are advised to provide us
with the below
information for proper verification before we can proceed with your claims.

1. Full Names:
2. Country Of Resident:
3. Sex:
4. Age:
5. Marital Status:
6. Occupation:
7. Contact Number:
8. Winning Email:
9. Nationality:
10. Amount Won:

You are expected to keep this information highly confidential and away
from the general public
most importantly your reference and ticket numbers. (This is important as
a case of double claims
will not be entertained) and to protect any interest of the unknown claimers.

Thank you and congratulations!!!
Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Lee
Processing Director

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This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam