419 scam: "Wilson Cole"<wxb@goldentang.com> Re: Your Lotto Winning Award

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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:
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "to your nominated bank account" (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)
- "affidavit " (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- "high court" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
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.
- +27865275738 (South Africa, prepaid mobile phone)

Fraud email example:

From: "Wilson Cole" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <wilsonncolelotto2015@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2015 11:14:47 -0300
Subject: Re: Your Lotto Winning Award

From:The office of Mr. Wilson Cole
Fiduciary Claim Agent Services LLC
145, Chris Anderson Drive
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Fax: +27 865 275 738

Dear Sir

We wish to acknowledge receipt of your message to this office in respect to your Lottery winning notification and claim for a total pay out of £2, 5000.000

Congratulations.

We understood that you will want your payment made to you by direct bank to bank transfer.We have entered it into our data base; it is our obligation to inform you that we have been mandated to process, release and transfer your winning fund by International Power Ball Award Promotions. We are mandated to supervise, assist and monitor the claim and payment of winners of the Lottery from the designated bank here in South Africa.

Please,kindly forward the following information to enable us commence the processing/transfer of your winning fund.

1)Your bank name
2)Your bank address
3)Your bank swift code
4)Your bank branch code or routing number
5)Your account number
6) Beneficiary name of the account holder
7)Scanned Copies of your international passport or national identification document or Drivers license via attachment.

As soon as we receive this information, we shall commence the processing of your funds and after due verifications in conducted and scrutinized, we shall instruct the holding bank to release and transfer your fund to your nominated bank account without any delay.

In normal circumstances, it will take us two to three banking working days to complete the processing and transferring of your money but this would depend on the support and co-operation we receive from you.

Finally, we have to obtain an International Affidavit of beneficiary Status from South Africa High Court in your favor and submit together with your file to our paying/transferring Bank before they can accept our application to release and transfer your fund in any means of your choice, without the Affidavit the paying/transferring Bank will not accept our application to process and release/transfer your winning fund to you.

Faithfully yours,
Mr.Wilson Cole
Claim Agent Manager.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam