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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: "National Lottery South Africa" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <Claims_cash4u@outlook.com>
Date: Tue, 8 May 2018 05:01:24 +0200
Subject: Cngratulations Winner !! Proceed For Payment !!

Attention: Email Account Holder CONGRATULATIONS!! CONGRATULATIONS!! We are glad to inform you that the South African National Lottery Commission in Collaboration with Lotto Royals on-line lotto and email address free-ticket draw of the 2018 Euro Jackpot promotion Award has just been released, and we are glad to announce to you that your email address came out in the first category and entitles you to claim the sum of €500,000.00 or its equivalence in South African Rand ZAR. This is a promotional program to encourage the use of Internet programs. Your email address was entered for the online draw on this free ticket number: AMD061557 with reference number: i20LFM4995 and Serial number: EN/18273, Batch number: AMD/30021 drew the Lucky number: 07-01-41-26-24-17- Bonus 09. This subsequently won you the lottery in the 1st category ie. Matches 6 lucky numbers plus Bonus number. You have therefore been allocated to claim a total sum of €500, 000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Euros Only) in cash which is credited to file AMD/7672145308/12. This is from a total cash prize of €10, 280,000.00 shared amongst the 194 with (2) lucky winners "1st" category. This promotion was drawn based on email addresses, as the key identification for setting up online accounts, All valid email addresses on the World Wide Web were entered as participants for the online email promotion. Winners were selected randomly via computer balloting from global website collaboration with internet companies like eBay, PayPal, Liberty reserve and Microsoft, whom also built their systems and based their membership registration identity on email addresses supporting this computer draw. Also over 100,000 unions, associations, corporate bodies and affiliated members to National Lottery website and their advertisers listed online. These online promotions takes place via virtual ticket balloting. Kindly Provide the following information urgently: 1. Full name: 2. Physical Address: 3. Age: 4. Occupation: 5. Reference Number/Ticket Number: 6.Telephone Number: 7. Nationality: 8. Batch number: Contact our office immediately with details below to commence release of your lottery prize by providing details above. Email: Claims_cash4u@outlook.com Tel: (+27)71-1807-9435 Sincerely, Joy Pillay (Mrs) Promotion Officer

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