419 scam: "KAREN BETTY"<noreply@karen.com> RE: !!CONGRATULATIONS 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:

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 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!

Fraud email example:

From: "KAREN BETTY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <karrenbetty.22@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2018 09:43:51 -0800
Subject: RE: !!CONGRATULATIONS WINNER!!

My name is Karen Betty and i currently work with Facebook as an online coordinator at the Headquarters based in the United States of America USA . I was assigned by the Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to contact you and inform you that your Email was honored the sum of One Million United States Dollars ($1,000.000.00 usd) in the Facebook End of the Year Promo. Facebook is using this medium to reach out to everyone as well as our various Facebook Users, and also helping all people,The deaf and Dumb, Retired, Senior Citizen, the poor, the widow, and Disabled. So everyone is giving an opportunity through our Facebook Lottery Online Program.

I am happy to let you know that your Email was among the selected list of winners in the just concluded annual draws result of The FACEBOOK END OF THE YEAR LOTTERY AWARD PROMO. CONGRATULATIONS to you on that. The Cyber lottery draws was conducted from an exclusive list of 21,000,000 e-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies selected randomly by an advanced automated random computer balloting search on the internet, so you among ten other winners will be compensated with the sum of One Million United States Dollars ($1,000,000.00 usd) each. I have tried to reach you severally but never got any response back from you. Kindly reply back to this mail with your Full Name, Contact Address, Contact Phone Number, State and Zip code, Country of Residence, Scanned Copy of Identity or Drivers License for further procedure on how your winnings will be released to you. ONES AGAIN CONGRATULATIONS.

Your sincerely,

Karen Betty.

Facebook Lottery Co-ordinator.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam