The Federal Trade Commission has brought a law enforcement action against an online operation that allegedly raked in more than $450 million from consumers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand by luring them into “free” or “risk-free” offers, and then charging them for products and services they did not want or agree to purchase.

Penny auction sites lure consumers with cheap prices on brand-name electronics, designer handbags and discounted store gift cards. But an investigation by the Washington Attorney Generals Office shows how some of these sites can fool consumers into paying big bucks on an auction with no winner. These sites use shill bids to drive up prices by one unlucky penny at a time.

In fact, Anthony Gates is a real person in Fiji. However, this scammer is unlikely to be him, just another identity theft. This attorney is pulling the old scam of "some rich men died and oh God, please help take his money - its too heavy for me to carry" storyline.

This is the full scam mail about... whatever the hell he is trying to tell you is give him some money for free.

Damn, I just summarized everything in less than 1 sentence.

A second look at "save 419 scam victim" scams, and it sounds really stupid:

"On this faithful recommendations, we want you to know that during the last U.N. meetings held at Abuja, Nigeria, it was alarmed so much by the world in the meetings on the lose of funds by various individuals to the Nigerian scams artists operating in syndicates all over the world today.

The fake Joseph says, help to transfer $18.5 million and get to keep 30% of it. Its a good deal.

The real Jay says, bull shit, another next-of-kin, inheritance scam.

This is a 419 scam, they will ask you to pay a fee, and run away with it.

"Its TOP SECRET, Jay, why are you posting this here..."

"Shhh... this dont' tell anybody ok?"

All names and entities stated in the mail below are fake.

This is a just a 419 scam.

A visitor received a job offer from "Savidy Associates".

"I have received an email and offer of a part time job from Savidy Associates, a Cyprus based company, completing forms etc, this is from their email:-

Brief Analysis
The message is a scam. It is not from a real lottery organization and the supposed prize money does not exist. Those who contact the bogus "agent" specified in the message will be asked to sent upfront fees supposedly to allow their "prize money" to be released.

It's become the fastest rising type of identity theft - taking on the mantle of the dead. It can be a recent bereavement or even the name of someone who died years before. In 2005 there were 70,000 cases in the U.K., costing an estimated £250 million, experts now predict the number of these sorts of crimes will very rapidly increase.

As the awareness of health rises, so does the popularity of organic food. Untainted by chemicals, it's better for our bodies. It's become a multi-million pound industry - one that's open for scams. When we buy organic food, we believe we're getting the real thing, but are we?

If you receive an e-mail telling you that you've won the National Lottery, beware! It's a scam! The National Lottery does not give away prizes by entering random e-mail addresses into a draw. You have to buy a lottery ticket to enter. Where do you think the prize money comes from? It comes from people buying lottery tickets. That's how it works. There would be no point if you could win by some fool harvesting your e-mail address and money being given away without you even entering the lottery in the first place!

A new 2010 World Cup Lottery scam that purports to have been sent by the promotions manager of the South Africa World Cup Lottery 2010 is making the rounds. Recipients are informed in an attachment that their e-mail addresses have been randomly selected by a specially designed computer program and that they have won US$2,5 million.

Online schemes operating out of Nigeria that have defrauded victims of tens of millions of dollars have become so pervasive that the U.S. government has given the West African country until November to take steps to decrease such crimes or face sanctions.

The origin of the 419 scam is currently debated. Many critics belive that the scam was first devised by Nigerian petroleum companies and criminal gangs in the 1970's or 1980's. The first scams involved lucrative oil contracts and other related frauds. Until about 2001, the scammers were located primarily in Lagos, Aba, and Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The scammers have recently set up bases in many countries besides Nigeria, including The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, and Canada.

Advance fee fraud, often also known as the Nigerian money transfer fraud, Nigerian scam or 419 scam after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code [1] that it violates, is a fraudulent scheme to extract money from investors living in rich countries in Europe, Australia, or North America. Although these confidence tricks originated in Nigeria, they have since become a worldwide criminal activity that is conservatively estimated to net billions of dollars a year. They have been ongoing since at least 1989, and are carried out through the mail, fax and increasingly through e-mail spam. Originally, the schemers contacted mainly heads of companies and church officials, but private citizens are routinely targeted as well.

Dear sir/madam, To whom it may concern, I kindly want to put in notice before you, my name is Mr. John Moore citizen of UNITED KINGDOM, I am in UNITED KINGDOM presently seeking for a reliable and trust worthy fellow in Indian to assist me of my funds, which I transferred from the BARCLAYS BANK PLC OF ENGLAND to the BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION Foreign Remittent Banking Department there in India, for an real estate investment purpose. The said amount is three point two million usd ($3.2 million) I have done a reasonable research and find out that is not easy for foreigners to have an account for such a huge amount, so I want you as a citizen of India to assist me by transferring this funds into your nominated bank account, and twenty five percent will be offer to you for the work well done. And as soon as my fund is transfer into your account, I will fly down to Indian to start my investment. Please, if you are interested do contact me as soon as possible. For proper verification here are the contact numbers. Thanks for co. operation. E-mail id: mrjohnmoore1@hotmail.com My personal number: +447014235704 Regards Mr. John Moore

Dear E-mail User,

Your email has just won the sum of £1,000.000.00 GBP in cash credited to a file in the just concluded COCA COLA DONATIONS END OF YEAR PROMO held on Draw Date: Saturday 05/02/2011. You were selected among the lucky recipients to receive the Grand sum of one million Great Britain pounds sterling in cash credited to fill ktu/9023118308/03 approved by Coca-Cola Board held in London, United Kingdom.
====================================
Winning Numbers: 17, 57, 28,32,38,73 bonus 50.
Ticket Number: ktu/5323116540/01
Secret No: 0648432/10
Draw Date: Saturday 05/02/2011
======================================
Be informed that a cheque will be issued in favor of your name as the lucky beneficiary and also your winning cheque will also been handed over to the European Union, to make delivery to your address. At this point you are advice to contact our authorized Organization to enable them commences with the delivery immediately.

Contact Information.
DHL
E-mail: dhldispatchunit@hotmail.co.uk
Name: Dr. David Patrick
Tel: +447017043379.

(1) NAME:
(2) ADDRESS:
(3) MOBILE NUMBER:
(4) DATE OF BIRTH:
(5) SEX:

Volkswagen MOTORS WORLDWIDE LTD.

Internet User Encouragement Promotions

VW Motors

Manchester/Malaysia.

We are officially announcing to you the result of VW Motors Email Lottery
Promotion held on the 30th day of Dec. 2010 as part of our programs to
Launch our multi million dollar office that was commissioned on 5th of
January 2011 in Malaysia and Manchester United Kingdom. Your email was
attached to ticket number VJETTA-UK-VP990003-M4GA with draw number P93VWJ
which consequently won you in the 2nd category prize, your email address
was extracted from our electronic email extraction system which randomly
selected Fifthteen (15) Lucky Winners of which your email address was
among one of the lucky winner. You have therefore been approved for a
payout of a total sum 850,000 GBP (EIGHT HUNDRED & FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS).

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

We also advise that you keep your winning information very confidential as
our security policy demands to avoid double claims/impersonation and
unwarranted abuse of this program by some individuals. The selection
process was carried our through our computerized Email Selection System
(ESS) which selects email from a database of over 600,000 email address
was drawn from all over the continents of the World. This promotions being
the first of its kind will now take place

annually and we hope you will also take part in our next year One Million
Pounds Sterling International Lottery Game. To file your claim, you are to

ERHC Energy Inc. is a publicly traded American company with valuable oil and gas assets in the

Gulf of Guinea, off the coast of central West Africa.ERHC Energy, Inc, Has immediate employment

opportunities.

We intend to invite experienced Individuals/Expatriates or Consultancy firm who are capable of

rendering expertise services in various fields of Engineering,Construction and Installation, NDT

, Geology, Project Management, Welding and Fabrication, Plant/Start-Up, Maintenance,

Mechanical/Technical/Design Engineering, Information Technology, Administrative,Commissioning and

Medical Experts.



ENTITLEMENT, BENEFITS AND PACKAGES:

. A very attractive net salary paid in US$, Sterling or Euros equivalent
depending on employee home country and currency preference with annual salary review.
. Quality single or family housing accommodation(up to 5 people) in company community.
. Free medical/dental care in US and other surrounding company countries for

employee and family.
. Excellent educational assistance benefits with family status employment.
. Paid airfares allowing full flexibility with holiday travel.
.Personal effects shipment and excess baggage allowances.

.Full access to some of the finest and social recreational facilities in
UNITED STATE OF AMERICA, UNITED KINGDOM and subinates WEST AFRICA COUNTRIES.
.Life Insurance and Paid vacation.

BLACK-BERRY® OFFICIAL COMPANY OF UNITED KINGDOM.
THE BLACK- BERRY COMPANY PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD
THE BLACK BERRY TRUST 17 MENDY STREET HIGH WYCOMBE
BUCKS, HP11 2NZ UNITED KINGDOM.
THE BLACK BERRY COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION 2011

Attention; winner,
Your Email-ID has won you £800,000.00 Pounds in our Black-Berry New Year promo. We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual final draws held on the ( 21st December, 2010) by Black-Berry in conjunction with the British American Tobacco Worldwide Promotion, your email was among the 20 Lucky winners who won £800.000 (Eight Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pound Sterling ) each on THE BLACK- BERRY COMPANY PROMOTION However the results were released on the (1st January, 2011) and your email was attached to ticket number (7PWYZ2006) and ballot number (BT:12052006/20) The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 30,031 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. However, no tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world. This Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also Licensed by the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR).This lottery is the 3rd of its kind and we intend to sensitize the public. In other to claim your £8, 00.000(Eight Hundred Great Britain Pound Sterling) prize winning, this has been deposited in a designated bank.
However, you will have to fill the form below and send it to the Promotion manager of THE BLACK-BERRY COMPANY via Email black-berry11@live.co.uk for verification and then you will be directed on how you can claim your winning funds.

Your E-mail ID has won you One million british pounds from KIA MOTORS PROMOTION HELD in UNITED KINGDOM. Contact Us for your claims Prize.
Name:
Address:
Phone Number:
Occupation:
Sex:
Age:
Country:
For more details of your claims AWARD KIA MOTORS UNITED KINGDOM. Contact E-mail: kiamtrawrd2011@hotmail.com
Mr Smith Dennis
Phone: +447017600945
Fudiciary Claims Agent

TOYOTA AUTOMOBILES COMPANY
BURNASTON A38/A50, DERYSHIRE
EAST MIDLANDS DE1 9TA UNITED KINGDOM
TEL: +447010037718
STAR PRIZE WINNER

This is to inform you that you have won a BRAND NEW TOYOTA CAMMRY 09 CAR and a cash prize of (£250,000 00 GBP). The car comes with a special TOYOTA INSURANCE Cover for one whole year that is till the next promotion in 2011. It also comes with a one year warranty and FREE repairs at any TOYOTA AUTOMOBILES depot or service station worldwide. Your Batch No: 515944052/166 and Winning No: 1544 make you as one of the lucky winner in our Charity bonanza.

BEFORE READING THIS EMAIL, (biz org) HAS CONFIRM THIS EMAIL TO BE A LEGAL AND REAL PROPOSAL WHICH HAS BEEN THOROUGHLY SCREENED BEFORE WE AGREE TO
SHARE THIS EMAIL IN THE HELP OF MR ABDULAHI KAREEM A UK BASED CONTRACTOR ALL REPLIES SHOULD BE SENT TO eng.kareem@hotmail.co.uk HIS FULL CONTACT INFO IS
GIVEN BELOW
===========================================
APPLICATION FOR FINANCIAL/INVESTORS SUPPORT WITH COLLATERAL AVAILABLE.
===========================================


I'm a Mr Abdulahi Kareem A kuwait national Based in United kingdom. Also an Engineer into various contstruction work. Actually i normally seek Contracts at
local AND state government level here in united Kingdom and i am well Known in the for that. But for Now I secured a contract job in the federal Government
level which is worth about (FIFTHEEN million GBP) 15,000,000 POUNDS. But the constitution of the Britain states that a contractor securing a contract must