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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:

Fraud email example:

From: au.lot3@aol.com
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2017 03:11:27 -0400
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!


Date:17/8/2017Ref: 475061725Batch: 8056460902 /188Winning no: GB9701/LPRC:                                                    CONGRATULATIONS!!!Greetings,We are delighted to inform you of your prize release on the 17th August, 2017  from the Australian International Lottery programme. Which is fully  based  on an electronic selection of winners using their e-mail addresses from some site.Your email address was  attached to ticket number; 5706172507056490902, serial number 8741137002  . This batch draws the lucky numbers as follows 83 82-42 bonus number 17,which consequently won  the lottery in the second c ategory.You he reby have  been approved a lump sum pay of US$200,000.00 (TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) in cash credit file  Ref: ILP/HW 47509/02 from the total cash prize  shared amongst eight lucky winners in this category.All participant were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United States, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program  which  is conducted annually. This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomerate of some multinational companies as part of their socialresponsibility to the citizens in the communities where they have operational base.Further more your details (e-mail address) falls within our European representative office in Amsterdam,Holland,as indicated in your play coupon and  your prize of US$200,000.00 will be released to you from this regional branch office in NIGERIA. We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year high stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw.HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE: Simply contact our fiduciaryagent, Mr. Favor Nwanne at ;favornwanne1@aol.comto file for your claim .Please quote your reference,batch and winning number which can be found on the top left corner of this notification as well as your full name, address and telephone number to help locate your file easily. For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you.This is part of our security protocol to avoid  double  claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participantor unofficial  personnel. Note, all winnings MUST be claimed by 2017; otherwise all funds will be returned  as Unclaimed and eventually donated to charity  organizations.Congratulations once again on your winnings!!!Best RegardsNancy Viduka(co-ordinator)REPLY TO THE ABOVE MENTIONED EMAIL.ANY BREACH OF CONFIDENTIALITY ON THE PART OF THE WINNERS WILL RESULT TO DISQUALIFICATION

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