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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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "fiduciary 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.
  • +447031848823 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
  • +31616022565 (Netherlands, prepaid mobile phone)

Fraud email example:

From: "The UK National Lottery" <ukintlotto2005@netscape.net>
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2005 08:15:10 -0900
Subject: CONGRATULATION

The National Lottery
P O Box 1010
Liverpool, L70 1NL
UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)
Tel: ++44 703 184 8823
Fax: ++44 709 287 1711

Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369


WINNING NOTIFICATION:

We happily announce to you the draw (#476 ) of the UK NATIONAL
LOTTERY,online Sweepstakes International program
held on saturday 10th september,2005. Your e-mail address at! ! tached to
ticket number: 56475600545 188 with Serial
number 5368/02 drew the lucky number which subsequently won you the
lottery in the 2nd category.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £1,000,000.00 (One
Million Pounds sterlings) in
cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03.

This is from a total cash prize of £5,000,000 shared amongst the first five
(5) lucky winners in this category

All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World
Wide Web sites through computer draw system
and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations and corporate bodies
that are listed online. This promotion takes
place weekly.

Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our European
booklet representative office in Europe as indicated
in your play coupon. In view of this, your £1,000,000.00 (One Million
Pounds sterlings) would be released
to you by any of our payment offices in Europe.

Our European agent will immediately commence theprocess to facilitate the
release of your funds as soon as you contact
him.

For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information
confidential your claim is processed and your money
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.

Please be warned.

To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent in the
Netherland: MRS. JENNIFER MAXWELL

Tel:++31 616 022 565
Email: uklottery80@walla.com

Our European agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the
release of your funds as soon as you contact
him. You may wish to establish contact via e-mail with the particulars
presented above citing the batch
and reference numbers to this letter.

Our winners are assured of the utmost standards of confidentiality, and
press anonymity until the end of proceedings, and
beyond where they so desire. Be further advised to maintain the strictest
level of confidentiality until the end of proceedings
to circumvent problems associated with fraudulent claims. This is part of
our precautionary
measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program.

Goodluck from me and members of staff of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY.

Yours faithfully,
Mark Richard.
Online coordinator for UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
Sweepstakes International Program.
Copyright © 1994-2005 The UK National Lottery Inc.
All rights reserved. Terms of Service - Guidelines

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam