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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Anna Miguel" (may be fake)
Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 12:54:38 +0200
Subject: Your Email Won The Prize 74.208.166.164

MICROWORD CORPORATIONS:
CUSTOMER SERVICE, MADRID.
REFERENCE NUMBER: MCV-RX/E-3929
BATCH NUMBER: 2010/330/MCV

OFFICIAL WINNING NOTIFICATION.
We are pleased to inform you of the released results of Sweepstakes Promotion
organized by Microword Corporations, in conjunction with the foundation for the
promotion of software products, held on 2nd April,2010,in Madrid,Spain.
Your email address emerged as one of the online Winning emails, in the 3rd category
and therefore attracted a cash award of 750,000.00 (Seven Hundred and Fifty
Thousand Euros) and a Toshiba Laptop. For more information and to begin your claim,
Contact Our Foreign Transfer Manager:
David Martins
Tel: 0034 634 031 494
Email:clientservicio@ozu.es
This Email Lottery is Sponsored by Microword Coporation and all the members of
MSFT Word Resource Consortium Software Promotion Companies.This internet E-mail
draw is held periodically angend is organized to encourage the use of the Internet and
promote computer literacy worldwide.
Congratulations!!
Sincerely,
Anna Miguel
Promotions Manager

Anti-fraud resources: