419 scam: "MRS. MARY KOWALSKI"<steven@keenhi.com> ®Crude Oil Representative NeededDO (ATM 811)r.gineePŒë¸"

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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 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.
- +2348033506992 (Nigeria, prepaid mobile phone)

Fraud email example:

From: "MRS. MARY KOWALSKI" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <offer1@secretarias.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 10:39:48 -0700
Subject: ®

Attention Regular User of the Internet

How are you doing today? This is an official notification to inform you of your funds from a total cash prize of US$ 50.0m, given to the first fifty (50) people who will be compensated in this cash grant world internet programs this year 2010.

All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site Through computer draw system and extracted from over 700,000 companies I am using this opportunity to thank you for using the internet daily.

Due to your effort, using internet programs indoor and in your office, we want to compensate you and show our gratitude to you with the sum of US$1.0m. We have authorized Mr. Harry Gibson to assist you in getting your compensation bank draft across to you.

Please call +234-8033-506992 or email Harry Gibson at offer@secretarias.com for further proceedings of you claims.

Finally remember that instruction have been forwarded to Mr. Harry Gibson on your behalf to process the proof of ownership certificate and ask for your transfer details as soon as you send the following information to him.

Full Name [ ]
Contact Address [ ] (home or office)
Cell Number [ ]

Thanks and God bless you and your family.

Hope to hear from you soon.

MRS. MARY KOWALSKI
Affiliate, UN cash grant.
International Online Lottery Co-coordinator.
© 2010 WORLD INTERNET PROGRAMS®

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam