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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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• What can you do when you receive 419 spam
  
  
• Spam archive, Daily index
  

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:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
  • "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
• 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!

Fraud email example:

From: info@salottery.org
Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 18:18:05 -0800
Subject: LOTTERY WINNING NOTIFICATION

FROM THE DESK OF THE PROMOTION MANAGER
SA LOTTERY, SOUTH AFRICA.

DEAR SIR/MADAM

We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected as one of
the winners in the SA LOTTERY Online Promotional draw held on the 1st
October 2005.

Winners were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from
2,500,000 email addresses of individuals and companies from Africa,
America, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Middle East, and New
Zealand as part of our electronic business Promotions Program.
You qualified for the draw as a result of you visiting various
e-business website we are running on the Internet.


A ticket number 100-309-7482, with serial number 111 410-887
was attached to your entry which drew the lucky numbers 1 10
29 37 45 49 and consequently won in the second category.
You are therefore awarded a cash prize of US$1,500,000.00, which
is the winning payout for Second category winners.
This is from the total prize money of US$13,650,000.00 shared
among several international/local winners in the Second category.


You are to contact the director of claims department with the
information below to arrange for your payout,


Mr. Edwin Sipho
Director,
Claims department.
Email:admin@salottery.org


Ensure that you contact the claim department not later than
21 days from the day you receive this notification message.

Sincerely,


MR WILLIAM JOHNSON.
THE PROMOTIONS MANAGER,
SA LOTTERY, SOUTH AFRICA

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam