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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

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.
  • freecoord@netscape.net
  • freecoord@netscape.net

Fraud email example:

From: <freecoord@freelott.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 15:06:15 +0100
Subject: Award

MR. ANDREW GRANT.
FREE LOTTO PROMOTIONS
REF NUMBER: SLI/421/960/05
BATCH NUMBER: ST-688-SN13-05

Dear Winner,

We are pleased to inform you that as a result of our recent lottery draw
held on the 29th of September 2005. Your e-mail address attached to ticket
number 27522465896-532 with serial number 652-662 drew lucky numbers
05-09-17-24-26-38, which consequently won in the 2nd category. You have
therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of
€1,500,000.00 (One Million, Five Hundred Thousand Euros only)

Note that all participants in this lottery program have been selected
randomly through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 companies
and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from all search engines and
websites. This promotional program takes place every year, and is promoted
and sponsored by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei, Bill
Gates of Microsoft Inc and other corporate organizations. This is to
encourage the use of the Internet and computers worldwide.

For security purpose and clarity, we advise that you keep your winning
information confidential until your claims have been processed and your
money remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid
double claims and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants.
We look forward to your active participation in our next year US$50
Million slot.

You are requested to contact our Lottery coordinator strictly by the email
below: freecoord@netscape.net. This is to assist you with your winnings
and subsequent payments immediately. All winnings must be claimed not
later than one month after the date of this notice. Please note, in order
to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, remember to quote your
reference number and batch numbers in all correspondence. Furthermore,
should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as
possible. Congratulations once more and thank you for being part of our
promotional program.

NOTE: YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED IF YOU ARE BELOW 18 YEARS OF AGE
OR SEEN TO DOUBLE CLAIM THROUGH ANY OTHER COORDINATOR.
Sincerely yours


MR. ANDREW GRANT
(LOTTERY COORDINATOR)
freecoord@netscape.net

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam