419 scam: Google Awards <petho.istvan@invitel.hu> Contact Claims Agent

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
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 mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447024072806 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
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.
- googleawards@sify.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Google Awards <petho.istvan@invitel.hu>
Reply-To: googleawards@sify.com
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:21:01 -0800
Subject: Contact Claims Agent

Stamford New Road,

Altrincham Cheshire,

WA14 1EP

London,

United Kingdom.

GOOGLE AWARDS.

We wish to congratulate you once again on this note, for being part of our winners

selected this year. This promotion was set-up to encourage the active users of the

Google search engine and the Google ancillary services.

Hence we do believe with your winning prize, you will continue to be active and

patronage to the Google search engine.Google is now the biggest search engine

worldwide and in an effort to make sure that it remains the most widely used search

engine, we ran an online e-mail beta test which your email address won 450,000,00. Pounds

We wish to formally announce to you that you have successfully passed the

requirements, statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report

Test conducted for all online winners.

You are advised to contact your Foreign Transfer Manager with the following

details to avoid unnecessary delay and complications:

VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM.

(1) Your contact address.

(2) Your Tel/Fax numbers.

(3) Your Nationality/Country.

(4) Your Full Name.

(5) Occupation/Age.

(6) Your Preferred Method of Receiving Your Prize (Bank Transfer)

Doctor Frank Smith

Email googleawards@sify.com

Tell: +447024072806

The Google Promotion Award Team has discovered a huge number of double

claims due to winners informing close friends relatives and third parties

about their winning and also sharing their pin numbers. As a result of this,

these friends try to claim the lottery on behalf of the real winners. The

Google Promotion Award Team has reached a decision from headquarters that

any double claim discovered by the Lottery Board will result to the

canceling of that particular winning, making a loss for both the double

claimer and the real winner, as it is taken that the real winner was the

informer to the double claimer about the lottery. So you are hereby strongly

advised once more to keep your winnings strictly confidential until you

claim your prize.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Frank Smith.

Google Incorporations.

©2009 Google Incorporations

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam