419 scam: Texas Lottery <txlottery@tx.us.gov> Good News!!!

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
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:
- ",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)
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 free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- txlotteryagent1@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Texas Lottery <txlottery@tx.us.gov>
Reply-To: txlotteryagent1@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 18:06:15 +0200
Subject: Good News!!!

Texas Lottery Commission,
Mega Millions Lottery,
PO Box 16630
Austin Texas
USA.
=====================
Winning NO: XB3/701/LNRC
Batch NO: 905534213/255
Ref NO: 7458222754
=====================
Dear Lucky Winner,
We are pleased to announce your email address as one of the 200 lucky winners in the Texas Lotto draw held on the 5th Of April 2011. All 200 winning addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 100,000,000 {ONE HUNDRED MILLION} international emails addresses.

Consequently, you have therefore been approved for a total payout of $1,040,000 USD (One Million and forty thousand dollars only). Your email address emerged along side with 199 others as a category of winner in this year's Annual Draw.

The Texas Lottery is proudly sponsored by the Microsoft
Corporation, Coca Cola, Nokia, MTN, the Intel Group,
Toyota,Toshiba, Yahoo Auction and Fully Supported by
the United Nations.

The Texas lottery draw is held twice in a year interval. And is also organized to encourage the use of internet and computers.

We are proud to say that over $2.6 billion USD are won annually in more than 150 countries world-wide.

For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning
information confidential until you claim your prize money. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned.

Fill the form below to enable us process you winning prize
NAME..:.......................
.......
ADDRESS....................... ......
PHONE NO..:.........................
OCCUPATION.: ......................
AGE..: ..............................
SEX..:........................ .......
COUNTRY.:.....................

============================== ===========
NAME; DR Grace Williams
EMAIL; txlotteryagent1@yahoo.com

Sincerely,

Mrs. Larisa Hull
Texas Lottery Manager
Congratulations once again !!

Note to Winners: A photo of the lucky winners that have claim their winning money with Texas Lottery is available in jpg format by contacting

Grace Williams by email txlotteryagent1@yahoo.com

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam