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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
• Support our efforts to stop scams!
  
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• What can you do when you receive 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.

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.
  • +31649304642 (Netherlands, prepaid mobile phone)

Fraud email example:

From: "urgent lotterynotification" <urgentlotterynotification@msn.com>
Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 19:49:32 +0000
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION!!!!CONTACT CLAIMS OFFICER

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

$1,500,000.00. (One Million Five Hundred Thousand

United States Dollars) 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:

*************************************

Mr.Genin Simmons

Email:paker_claimsoffice@uk2.net

Tel:+31-64-930-4642

Fax:+31-84-720-7950  

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam