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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "MICROSOFT® CORPORATION" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <microsoftclams2015@163.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 14:31:43 -0800
Subject: MICROSOFT® CORPORATION

Dear User,
 
We wish to congratulate you on this note, for being part of our selected
winners in our just concluded internal promotion draw this year, this
promotion was set-up to encourage the active users of Microsoft products
 
and its software services.

Anti-fraud resources: