419 scam: "Ecowas Foundation" <ecowasfoundation@hotmail.com> From Ecowas Foundation

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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.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million united states dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- ",000,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "00,000.00" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "ecowas " (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "claimsdpt50@msn.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
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.
- +2347037462982 (Nigeria, prepaid mobile phone)

Fraud email example:

From: "Ecowas Foundation" <ecowasfoundation@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: claimsdpt50@msn.com
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2010 13:44:51 +0100 (WAT)
Subject: From Ecowas Foundation

Ecowas Foundation.
Attn: Beneficiary,

This is to inform you that your email address is among the Hundred (100)
beneficiaries of Ecowas Foundation Online Award.We are
happy to inform you that you have won a prize money of One Million United
States Dollars, ($1,000,000.00 USD) for this year 2010 Financial Grants
Programmes which is organized by ECOWAS FINANCIAL GRANTS UNIT. ECOWAS
DONATIONS collects all the email addresses of the people that are active
online, among the millions that subscribed to the Internet.we only select
Three people every Year as our winners through electronic balloting System
without the winner applying,we congratulate you for being one of the
people selected.

These are your identification numbers:
Batch number.....................ECW 34876XN
Ref number.......................ECW2345XN
Winning number...................ECW4535

Your Funds Would Be Released to You any Moment From Now, But Before Any
Further Processing, We Need to Have Your Information Registered in Our
Database, Please Fill The Form as Below and send to our payment office as
soon as possible with this contact information as below.

Note: Your File Reference Number is ECW2345XN

Full Name:
Residential Address:
Country: Germany
Telephone:
Occupation:
Gender:
Age:55
Next of Kin:
File Reference Number:

As Soon as we receives The Information Above You Will Be Duely Informed On
What Next to Do.

Name: Mr. Tony Canardo
TEL:+(234)7037462982
Email: claimsdpt50@msn.com

Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Betty Anderson.
Coordinator

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam