419 Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam (2006-01)

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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:

This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
1. They don't notify winners by email.
2. You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
3. They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
4. They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
5. They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
6. They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
7. They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- leivernoglobe@aim.com

Fraud email example:

From: =?iso-8859-15?Q?LA_PRIMITIVA_LOTERIA_ESPA=D1A?=
<primitivaawards@YAHOO.ES>
Reply-To: Soccer Boosters List <SOCCER-L@LSV.UKY.EDU>
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 18:21:33 +0200
Subject: LA PRIMITIVA LOTERIA EMAIL AWARDS 2008

Dear Winner,
Your e-mail address was selected as winner of La Primitiva Loteria España held 1st May 2008. You have won the sum of 1,730,687,00 (One Million Seven Hundred And Thirty Thousand, Six Hundred And Eighty Seven Euros Only) in cash credited to file with Reference number: ESP/1245/114L/LOP Winning Number:2-17-23-35-41-45

To file for your claim, please contact Leiverno Global Consultas S.A
Mr.Juan Romero
Reply Email: leivernoglobe@aim.com [mailto:leivernoglobe@aim.com]
Tel:0034 605 710 015
Congratulations once again from all our staff.
Sincerely,
Amanda Vardez
Secretary.
www.loteria.es [http://www.loteria.es/]

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Homepage mit eigenem Namen. Jetzt starten! *http://unddu.de/?kid=kid@mf2* [http://unddu.de/?kid=kid@mf2]

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam