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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: "Virgin Media" (may be fake)
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2020 15:05:08 -0000
Subject: IMPORTANT - Direct debit error

http://my.virginmedia.com/images/emails/cosr/vmonwht.jpg

Dear Customer,

We were unable to process the payment for your latest Virgin Media & Virgin Mobile bill at this time. The billing information associated with your account may have expired recently. Your service is scheduled for disconnection. We have been trying to contact you. However, we are unable to reach you.

To ensure that your service has not been interrupt, we require you to confirm and verify your account billing information with us immediately in-order to avoid any interruption on your services.

https://myvirginmedia.com/billingUP2date121720g1c3

Kind regards,

The Virgin Media team

P.S. We don't pick up emails from this mailbox, so please don't reply to this email address. If you'd like to get in touch, you'll find all the details at virginmedia.com/contact instead.

Virgin Media Limited is an appointed representative of Virgin Media Mobile Finance Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Financial Services Register number: 626215). Registered in England No. 09058868. Registered office: 500 Brook Drive, Reading, RG2 6UU.

Anti-fraud resources: