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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.

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Fraud email example:

From: info@salottery.org
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 22:20:29 +0200
Subject: Lottery Winning Notification.

FROM THE DESK OF THE PROMOTION MANAGER
SA LOTTERY, SOUTH AFRICA.
WWW.SALOTTERY.ORG


DEAR SIR/MADAM


We are pleased to inform you of our announcement
today, 30th April, 2005 of winners in the SA
LOTTERY Promotional draw held on the 23rd April 2005.

Winners were selected through a computer ballot
system drawn from 2,500,000 email addresses of
individuals and companies from Africa, America, Asia,
Australia, Canada, Europe, Middle East, and New Zealand
as part of our electronic business Promotions Program.
You qualified for the draw as a result of you
visiting various e-business website we are running on the
Internet.


A ticket number 100-309-7482,with serial number 111 410-887
was attached to your entry which drew the lucky numbers 1 10
29 37 45 49 and consequently won in the second category.
You are therefore awarded a cash prize of US$1,500,000.00, which
is the winning payout for Second category winners.
This is from the total prize money of US$13,650,000.00 shared
among several international/local winners in the Second category.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You are to file in your claim to the director of claims department
with the information below to arrange for your payout,


Mr. Edwin Sipho
Email:claimsdept@salottery.org


Ensure that you contact the claim department not later than
21 days from the day you receive this notification message.

Sincerely,


MR WILLIAM JOHNSON.
THE PROMOTIONS MANAGER,
SA LOTTERY, SOUTH AFRICA

Anti-fraud resources: