419 scam: "SHELL UK"<report@howsweet.com.tw> Re: Awardee

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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:
- "million 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!
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.
- +447024082720 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- +447043083020 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: "SHELL UK" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <shell.uk@yandex.com>
Date: Sun, 7 May 2017 17:31:22 -0700
Subject: Re: Awardee

We are happy to announce to you the draw (#294) of the SHELL UK INTERNATIONAL ONLINE LOTTERY PROGRAM 2017. The SHELL UK online draws was conducted this week by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 99,951,755 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. SHELL UK is giving out $50,000,000 to 100 lucky winners in which your email address was luckily selected to be one our Cash Prize winners of $2,000,000 (TWO MILLION DOLLARS ONLY).

Your email address was attached to Ticket number OM9887, With Serial number 2130110. You have been approved a cash sum of $2,000,000.00 credited to file Ref NO: SA/JA7754, Raffle Number: NJQ919617 and Batch No. SA94084. Kindly send the below personal details to me immediately to enable me process your Cash Prize pay-out immediately:

1] Full Name:
2] Full Address:
3] Date Of Birth:
3] Phone Number:
4] Occupation:

Kindly send the above details and along with the completed attached form and a copy of your identification to enable me process your cash pay-out immediately. You are warned to keep your winning information to yourself until you receive your fund to avoid double claim.

Thanks for your anticipated cooperation.

Sincerely Yours,
Mr Owen Graham
Shell UK Lottery Program Coordinator
Shell Centre
London SE1 7NA
United Kingdom
TEL: +447024082720
TEL: +447024040920
Fax: +44-7043083020

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam