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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: "Michael wesley" <notification@promoprogramme.com>
Reply-To: oldcurt_321@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 03:09:10 +0000
Subject: ATTENTION! ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!!!

The National Lottery
PO Box 1010
Liverpool
L70 1NL

FROM:THE DESK OF THE MANAGING DIRECTOR
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRICE AWARD DEPARTMENT.
REF Nº: EGS/2251256003/02
BATCH Nº:14/0017/1PD
RE: AWARD NOTIFICATION/ FINAL NOTICE

National U.K Lottery wishes to inform you of the results of the E-mail
address
ballot lottery international program by Great Britain. Your email account
has been picked as a winner of SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS ONLY.
This results is now released with your email address attached in the A
Category bonus ball.
To check your results on-line, click on this link
http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/results/results.do
Participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from
Microsoft users from company and individual email address users.
Be advice to keep your winning information confidential until your claims
has been processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our
security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this
program.
All winning must be claimed not later than One Week of this Acknowledgment.
After this date all unclaimed funds will be returned to the European Union
Treasury
as Unclaimed.
Please note: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please
remember to quote your reference number in allcorrespondence.
You are therefore advised to give the following information's to your claims
agent below,
Mr.Harold Curtis
Claims Agent
Programs & Events Department.
E-mail:oldcurt_321@yahoo.co.uk
Congratulations from the staff and thank you for being a part of our
email account users program.

Yours Sincerely,

Mrs. Julie Van Hans.


Anti-fraud resources: