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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: "Free Lottery International Promotion" <info@freelottery.org>
Reply-To: freeintcentre@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:50:30 -1200
Subject: YOUR EMAIL WON YOU THE SUM OF 500,000 POUNDS


El programa de detecci=F3n de Spam del sistema "dns1.ciberweb.com.mx", ha
identificado este mensaje como "correo basura". A=F9n as=ED, el
mensaje original no se ha borrado para su chequeo, si lo
era, podr=EDa bloquearlo en su programa de correo (cree un "filtro"
a partir de la etiqueta "X-Spam-Score"). Si tiene alguna duda,
contacte con el administrador para m=E1s detalles.

Contenido: The Free Lotto Sweepstakes, PO Box 42 Peterborough PE3
8XH UNITED KINGDOM Ref No: MELI-T/ 17-F044262312 Batch No:901/00319/HLP
Zonal Draw No: GMLA2-003 Grand Draw No: 12099 NOTIIFICATION NOTIFICATION
NOTIFICATION [...]=20

Detalles del an=E1lisis: (5.6 puntos, 5.0 requeridos)

pts regla aplicada descripci=F3n
---- ---------------------- ---------------------------------------
1.0 UNDISC_RECIPS Valid-looking To "undisclosed-recipients"
0.5 ADDR_FREE From Address contains FREE
1.0 SUBJ_ALL_CAPS Subject is all capitals
-1.4 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP
2.9 ADVANCE_FEE_3 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
0.0 ADVANCE_FEE_1 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
1.6 ADVANCE_FEE_2 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)



Anti-fraud resources: