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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

• 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 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.
  • pitersonwhite@netscape.net

Fraud email example:

From: NATIONAL LOTTERY <NATIONALLOTTO@YAHOO.CO.UK>
Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2005 15:11:10 +0100
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION!!!!!



WINNING NOTIFICATION
Batch number: 12/08/wC76 File number: WLO/9080118308/02
Ticket number: B9564 75604545 Draw winning: 01/08/24/27/34/46
Date: 10/09/2005


Congrats Candidate,
We are happy to announce to you the draw of The National Lottery programs held on the 10th of SEPTEMBER 2005 in England U.K. Your e-mail address was matched to ticket and winning number above , which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £500,000 (Five hundred thousand pounds Sterling Only) in cash credited to file WLO/9080118308/02. This is from a total cash prize of £10,000,000 (Ten Million Pounds) shared amongst the first Twenty (20) lucky winners in this category world-wide.
Note that your lucky winning number falls within our Afro booklet representative office in England as indicated in your play coupon. In view of this, your £500,000 (Five hundred thousand pounds) would be released to you by our payment centre in England. Our Payment Centre will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your winning amount as soon as you contact them. Be informed that all participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from over 22,000,000 companies and individuals. This promotion takes place annually. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information strictly confidential till your claims is processed and your winning amount is remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements. Please be informed that all winning must be claimed before 90 days of draw date. Please quote your Ticket, File, draw winning and Batch numbers in any correspondences with us or our payment centre.
This information transmitted is only for the person or Entity to which it is addressed and may contain Confidential or privileged materials. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of this Information, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information, by person or entities other than the Intended recipient is may result to disqualification.
Thank you for being part of our promotional lottery program.
CONTACT THE PAYMENT CENTER:;pitersonwhite@netscape.net

Sincerely Yours,
Dr. Phillip
Foriegn Operational Manager
__________________________________________________

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam