419 scam: "F.Bonato"<payoffice@italymail.com> WINNING NOTICE

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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:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
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.
- francesco.ssaita@aol.com (AOL; can be used from anywhere worldwide)

Fraud email example:

From: "F.Bonato" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <francesco.ssaita@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 11:11:11 +0200
Subject: WINNING NOTICE

Email Owner,
We are pleased to inform you again of the result of the Internet Promotional
Draws. All email Addresses entered for this Promotional Draws were randomly
inputted from an Internet Resource Database using the Synchronized Random
Selection System (SRSS).

This is our second letter to you.Your Email Address was selected with Special Digit Code:IPD-37519/IT and Ticket Number:
IPD-82934/2014,and this qualifies you as the recipient of the grand prize(€2.5M EUROS)
award sum of Two million,five hundred thousand Euros.

The payout of this cash prize to you will be subject to the final validations
and satisfactory report that you are the bonafide owner of the Winning Email
Address. In line with the governing rules of claims, you are required to
establish contact with our appointed claims agent via email with
the particulars below:

Name:
Address:
Country:
Phone Number:

Please establish contact with the Enquiry Officer via the e-mail address below
with the information's necessary:

Mr.Francesco,Saita
Enquiry officer
Foreign Claims Dept.
Email:francesco.ssaita@aol.com

Regards,
Anthony.B
Promotion Coordinator.

NOTE:....Failure to complete the Claims Process of your cash prize after 14 days of this notice
will result in the revision of award. Hence, you should commence
your claims process immediately,by contacting the Enquiry Officer(Lucas Conti)
who would be guiding you through the Claims process.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The information in this Email is confidential and intended solely for the recipient,and is legally protected.
The use of this information by anyone other than the recipient is prohibited. Disclosure, Copying, Distribution
of this information to third parties is not allowed.
Microsoft Internet,is not liable for the improper and incomplete transmission of the contents of a sent email nor for any delay in its receipt.
This footnote also indicates that the contents of this email has been scanned by a current virus scanner for the presence of computer virus.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam