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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: "AUSTRALIA LOTTERY INC." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ab_rahim@yahoo.cn>
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:53:38 +0100
Subject: Dear: Lucky winner,

Dear: Lucky winner,

This is to inform you that you have won prize money of THREE HUNDRED
THOUSAND BRITISH POUNDS STERLING (£300,000.00) for the 2010 Lottery
promotion which was organized by AUSTRALIA LOTTERY INC. for the
introduction of the new YAHOO! BETA MAIL, which all YAHOO! Users are
required to switch onto.

Australia Lottery Organization arrange and gather all the e-mail
addresses of people who are active online, among the millions that
subscribed to Yahoo!, Hotmail and other e-mail providers. Only FIVE
(5) candidates are selected as winners annually through Electronic
Balloting System (EBS) without the candidate applying. We congratulate
you for being one of the people selected.

NOTE: - Your e-mail address that won the prize for you falls within
our African representative office in Nigeria as indicated in your play
coupon and your prize of £300,000.00 will be released to you from this
regional Nigeria Bank, Australia Lottery Prize Award must be claimed
not later than 14 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw
date in which Prize has won. Note: Any prize not claimed within this
period (14 days) will be forfeited.

These are your identification numbers:
Batch number................YBM-EBS-390AF
Ref number................... YBM-EBS-719AF
Winning number............YBM-EBS-798AF

To claim your prize money, you are required to contact Dr. Barry
Thomas with your Batch number, Ref.number and Winning number through
his email below

AGENT NAME: Dr.Barry Thomas
Tel: +234-7039545254
Email: barry.thomas1@hotmail.com

You are advised to send the following information to your Claims Agent
to facilitate the release of your fund to you.
1. First name...............................
2. Last Name...............................
3. Country...................................
4. Contact Address......................
5. Telephone Number...................
6. fax Number.............................
7. Marital Status..........................
8. Occupation..............................
9. My Date of birth......................
10. Sex.......................................
Select how you want the Winning Prize money to be paid to you:
MODE OF PAYMENT OF PRIZE:
(1) Cheque Delivery To Your Address
(2) Bank to Bank via Account Transfer


WARNING!
Do not tell people about your Prize Award until your money is
successfully handed over to you to avoid disqualification that may
arise from double claim.

You may also receive similar e-mails from people portraying to be
other Organizations or Australia Lottery Inc. This is solely to
collect your personal information from you and lay claim over your
winning. In event that you receive any e-mail similar to the
notification letter that was sent to you, kindly delete it from your
mail box and give no further correspondence to such person or body.

Australia Lottery International (A.L.I) shall not be held responsible
for any loss of fund arising from the above mentioned.

Copyright 1994-2010 the AUSTRALIA LOTTERY
All rights reserved. Terms of Service - Guideline

Anti-fraud resources: