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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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: liveuknl@live.com
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:28:44 +0100
Subject: Reference #: UK/90G3825H9/08B



U.K/MSN Live Email Lottery

Reference #: UK/90G3825H9/08B

This is an e-mail notification to inform you that your e-mail address
has won you a cash prize of 950,000.00 GBP on our online lottery
sweep stakespromotion draws held today, 3rd of June, 2009 in London,
United Kingdom.

To file for claim, do contact our claims agent via e-mail as given
below providing your full name(s) & reference # (same as above) for
dueprocessing and remittance of your prize money.

Mr. Terry Waters
E-mail: livemsnuknl@live.com


Siti Yunos.
Online Co-ordinator

Anti-fraud resources: