419 scam: Charity Funds Corporation <charityfunds@otenet.gr> URGENT: >>You Won US$3,000,000.00<<

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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:
- "part of our security protocols" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million united states 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)
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!
Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.

Fraud email example:

From: Charity Funds Corporation <charityfunds@otenet.gr>
Reply-To: charityfundzz@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2017 16:50:02 -0800
Subject: URGENT: >>You Won US$3,000,000.00<<

Dear Internet User,
Attn: Mr./Mrs.,

We are happy to officially inform you that you are a lucky winner of
US$3,000,000.00 (three Million United States Dollars) only in our 5th
year Charity Funds Award promo held yesterday and results released
today. All the participated 80,000 company e-mail addresses and 200,000
individual email addresses and names were selected online from all over
the world. Your email address and name was attached to reference number;
1028/0236/5089 with Batch Number: 670399201-2017 and Serial Number:
4417051926 which consequently won you the three Million United States
Dollars in the second category.

No tickets was sold but all selected email addresses and names were
electronically assigned to different tickets numbers for privacy and
representatives. This is part of our global financial assistance for
humanitarian development. To speedy the processing of winnings
certificate and payment of your claims, you are required to urgently
reconfirm your contact details using the below required data:-
Your reference number; 1028/0236/5089
Batch Number: 670399201-2017
Serial Number: 4417051926
1. Your full names: ...............
2. Phone number: .................
3. Occupation: ....................
4. Gender & Age: ..................
6. Physical address: ..............
7. Country: .......................
8. Email address:..................

We congratulate you! Remember, all-winnings must be claimed on or before
three weeks from the date of this publication. Any prize NOT claimed
within this period will be forfeit. You are further reminded to keep
this notice strictly confidential to yourself until your winnings is
processed and released to you. This is part of our security protocols to
avoid double claims and unwarrantable abuse of this charity lottery
program.

Yours Faithfully,
Sir Harry Cooper (Esq)
(Head: Legal Department)
Charity Funds corporation
Lome - Togo.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam