419 scam: "Facebook"<winston@royalperspective.com> Facebook Announcement.

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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:
- "claims director" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million us 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)
- "hundred thousand united state 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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
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.
- ksb.clay@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Facebook" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ksb.clay@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:43:01 +0100
Subject: Facebook Announcement.

Dear Facebook User,

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual final draws held in March, 2012 In Dubai, UAE by Facebook Team in The Facebook Group MEGA LOTTO Cash Award Promotion to encourage the usage of Facebook world wide, your email was among the 23 lucky winners who won 3.1 Million US Dollars (Three Million, One Hundred Thousand United State Dollars) each in the first category of the Face Book Group Mega Lotto Award attached to eTicket Mega Number: 42 under the following winning data:

Amount Won: 3.1 Million US Dollars (Three Million, One Hundred Thousand United State Dollars)
Mega Number: 42
Ref No: FBG/12/31/244
Serial Number:W19FBG

The online draw was conducted in Dubai, UAE by a random selection of emails. You where picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the Facebook users database. In other to claim your 3.1 Million US Dollars in the lottery program which is a newly introduced Facebook user incentive as a way of saying A BIG THANK YOU to all our users for making Facebook their number one social networking provider. NOTE: Facebook makes huge money each time we offer you free social networking service.

As part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by scam artists and unscrupulous individuals, all participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 120,000 company facebook accounts and over 30,000,000 individual facebook accounts.

Your facebbok account and user email was selected in a raffle that was carried out second week of this month, so we need your fast response so that we can proceed with the delivery of your funds. To claim your prize winnings, please send your full name, address and the winning data above to our Claims Director General:

Name: Keith Clay
Direct Email: ksb.clay@gmail.com

Please accept my hearty congratulations once again.

CONGRATULATIONS ONCE AGAIN FROM FACEBOOK GIVE-AWAY TEAM.

Regards,
Akbar Ghanbari
Promo Coordinator
Dubai, UAE Give-Away Office
Villa 99, Street 23C, Near Mirdiff Park, Mirdiff, Dubai, UAE.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam