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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: " Airtel International Promotion" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrskimberlystubbsairtelssss@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 12:17:47 +0200
Subject: Re: Congratulations Email Account Onwer

DEAR WINNER,
 
The AIRTEL TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANY  has just concluded its final draws of it's periodical promotional program. An exclusive list of blogs,email addresses and webpages  of thousands of individual and corporate bodies were picked by automated random computer search from the internet with serial number 5772-54 drew the lucky numbers 3-4-17-28-35-44 and consequently won in the First Category.
 
Your nomination was based on certain critereas including:use of Decent words in profile,Most recent log ons, Decent profile photos etc.Your online profile emerged as one of six winners in the silver stakes category"A" as blogs and webpages were soughted, from a total number of 1,000,000 addresses drawn from all over the globe. After an automated computer ballot of our International Promotions Program, only Six winners emerged in this category and therefore each are to receive payouts of $$3,800,000 usd  (Three Million Eight Hundred Thousand United States Dollars).You /Your Online Profile has been awarded $$3,800,000 usd as one of our lucky winners in the Airtel Win & Rule Promotion 2015.
 
However,every blogs and webpages selected was accompanied by a reference tagged number,after the cyber lotto selection, You have been advised to contact the Airtel promo department with the required data listed below ;For your prize claim processing, you are to contact the lotto department office through the email address listed below as soon as you read this message for they are expecting to hear from you.
 
Full Name:
Mailing Address:
Contact Phone Number:
Date Of Bith:
Occupation:
Tagged Security Code: AIRTEL/TAGGED/0775
 
Mrs. Kimberly Stubbs.
Claim Airtel Lotto Department office,
EMAIL : mrskimberlytubbsss@gmail.com
 
CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Anti-fraud resources: