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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: "Google Inc" (may be fake)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2020 12:10:40 -0700
Subject: 07/07/2020 Award Result.

Google Inc
Belgrave House
76 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 9TQ,
United Kingdom
 
Winning No: GUK/877/798/2020
Ticket No: GUK/699/33/2020
 
Our Ref: Google Official Award Letter.
We wish to congratulate you on this note, for being part of our selected winners in our just concluded internal promotion draw this year, this promotion was set-up to encourage the active users of the Google search engine and the Google ancillary services.
Hence we do believe with your winning prize, you will continue to be an active patronage to the Google search engine and services. Google is now the biggest search engine worldwide and in an effort to make sure that it remains the most widely used search engine, we ran an online e-mail beta draw which your email address won Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling (950,000.00). We wish to formally announce to you that you have successfully passed the requirements, statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report test conducted for all online winners.
A winning check will be issued in your name by Google Promotion Award, for the sum of Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling (950,000.00) and also a certificate of prize claims will be sent alongside your winning check cashable at any bank in your country.
You are advised to contact the assigned Google Program Administrator/Coordinator with the following details to avoid unnecessary delay and complications:
GOOGLE PAYMENT AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM
(1) Your Contact Address/Private Email Address
(2) Your Tel/Fax Numbers
(3) Your Nationality/Country
(4) Your Full Name
(5) Occupation/Company
(6) Age/Gender
(7) Ever Won An Online Lottery?
(8) Comments About Google
Harry Smith
Google Senior Fellow
(Program Administrator/Coordinator)
Emails: harrysmit141@gmail.com
Tel: 00 44 970 165
Google values your right to privacy! Your information is 100% secured and will be used exclusively for the purpose of this award only.
The Google Promotion Award Team has discovered a huge number of double claims due to winners informing close friends relatives and third parties about their winning and also sharing their pin numbers. As a result of this, these friends try to claim the lottery on behalf of the real winners. The Google Promotion Award Team has reached a decision from its headquarters that any double claim discovered by the Lottery Board will result to the canceling of that particular winning, leading to a loss for both the double claimer and the real winner, as it is taken that the real winner was the informer to the double claimer about the lottery. So you are hereby strongly advised once more to keep your winnings strictly confidential until you claim your prize.
Congratulations from the Staffs & Members of the Google interactive Lotteries Board Commission.
Yours faithfully,
 
Sundar Pichai
Chief Executive Officer of Google

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