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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
• "Is that email a scam?" - Check it online here!
  
• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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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.

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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• 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!
• This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
  • +31644893614 (Netherlands, prepaid mobile phone)
• This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
  • claimagent_pt@yahoo.com

Fraud email example:

From: walter jones <walter@walter5.orangehome.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2006 05:14:58 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION FOR


FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL PRIZE AWARD DEPT

Attn Lucky Winner,

WINNING NOTIFICATION FOR CATEGORY "A" WINNER ONLY

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the last final annual
draw of our Lottery International Programs.

The online cyber lotto draws was conducted from an exclusive list of
25,000,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate bodies picked by
an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. No
tickets were sold..

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

After this automated computer ballot, your e-mail address emerged as a
winner in the category "A" with the following numbers attached Ref
Number: PW 9590 ES 9414,Batch Number: 573881545-NL/2005 and Ticket
Number:PP 3502 /8707-01 You are therefore to receive a cash prize of
£2,500,000.00. (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand Pounds) from the total payout

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Your prize award has been insured with your e-mail
address and will be transferred to you upon meeting our
requirements,statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report.
To file in for the processing of your prize winnings, you are advised
to contact our Certified and Accredited claims agent for category
"A"winners with the information below:
*************************************
Patrick Bowman
Tel: +31 644 893 614
Fax: +31 847 537 956
Email address,,,claimagent_pt@yahoo.com
*************************************
You are advice to provide him with the following information:
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later than 14 days, thereafter
unclaimed funds would be included in the next stake. Remember to quote
your reference information in all correspondence.

You are to keep all lotto information confidential, especially your
reference and ticket numbers. (This is important as a case of double
claims will not be entertained).Members of the affiliate agencies are
automatically not allowed to participate in this program.

Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agent
as soon as possible.

Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for
being part of our promotional program.

Yours Faithfully,
Walter Jones.
Lottery Coordinator.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam