419 scam: "FACEBOOK PROMO"<post@aol.com> CONGRATULATION YOUR NAME WAS AMONG THE 20 LUCKY WINNER

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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:
- "million 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)
- "00,000.00" (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.
- barry.dispatch147@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "FACEBOOK PROMO" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <barry.dispatch147@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2016 04:00:35 -0600
Subject: CONGRATULATION YOUR NAME WAS AMONG THE 20 LUCKY WINNER

CONGRATULATION YOUR NAME WAS AMONG THE 20 LUCKY WINNER

We are pleased to inform you of the result from the just concluded annual final draws held on the (21st Of October 2016) by FACEBOOK in cash Promotion to encourage the usage of FACEBOOK GROUP world wide, your name was among the 20 Lucky winners who won $1,000,000.00USD (One Million united state dollars) each on the FACEBOOK GROUP promotion award with ticket number (0877600545189) and Ref No (551256002244) Serial Number (3451907).

The online draws was conducted by a random selection of names and you where picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the FACEBOOK in other to claim your $1,000,000.00 USD. The lottery program which is a new innovation by FACEBOOK GROUP is aimed at saying A BIG THANK YOU to all our users for making FACEBOOK their number one social media network over the years.

You are required to contact our dispatch department via email... Mr Barry Smith (barry.dispatch147@gmail.com) with the information below in order to complete your winning certificate and for further information regarding the disbursement of your lottery win.

FULL NAME:
FULL CONTACT ADDRESS:
MOBILE PHONE NUMBER:
OCCUPATION:
MARITAL STATUS AND AGE:
NATIONALITY / COUNTRY:
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS:

This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants and Scam artists. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 companies and 30,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world. This promotional program takes place every (3)three years.

You have to be Rest assured that this is real and legal and there are some scam artists around...Thanks to the FBI CYBERUNIT (james.bcomey@cyberservices.com) 216 of them have been arrested so you can foward scam suspicious e-mail to the FBI for further instruction and advise.

FROM THE FACEBOOK PROMO COMPANY ©2016, WE WANT TO LET YOU KNOW THAT THE PROMO JUST STARTED AND IF YOU RECEIVE ANY MAIL APART FROM OURS NOTE THAT IT IS A SCAM, KINDLY REPORT ANY EMAIL TO THE FBI UNIT (james.bcomey@cyberservices.com). wE ARE ALSO PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THAT WE ARE WORKING WITH THE FBI AND THEY ARE IN CHARGE OF THIS PROMO.

CONGRATULATIONS ONCE AGAIN!!!
MARK ZUCKERBERG
CEO FACEBOOK GROUP PROMOTION.
FACEBOOK PROMO © 2016

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam