419 scam: "Mary Jones" <maryjonesatmcard2011@live.com> IS ME MR. O.K ABRAHAM GET BACK TO ME NOW

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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!

Fraud email example:

From: "Mary Jones" <maryjonesatmcard2011@live.com>
Reply-To: <mrokabraham2011@mail.mn>
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:15:37 +0200
Subject: IS ME MR. O.K ABRAHAM GET BACK TO ME NOW

I am in receipt of your email and the content is well understood, but I hereby to inform you once again that the £350,000.00 is your Euro million lottery winning funds which you won, that is why you are advised to fill the form and return back to us to enable us to proceed immediately on the crediting of your winning funds into your ATM CARD.

FULL NAME______________________________________

FULL ADDRESS___________________________________

AMOUNT APPLIED FOR_____________________________

AMOUNT IN WORD_________________________________

PURPOSE OF PAYMENT______________________________

TELEPHONENUMBER_________________FAXNUMBER___________

DATE_____________________

****************************************************************

We deeply appreciate your understanding and timely co-operation.

Yours faithfully,

Ms. Mary Jones

Please open the attachment and read Reply

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam