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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
  • "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 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.
  • scott_cole14@myway.com

Fraud email example:

From: "Leeds Lottery" <coordinator02@msn.com>
Reply-To: scott_cole14@myway.com
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 23:19:10 +0000
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Customer Care Unit,

Leeds Lotto Int’l.

Dear sir/Madam,

Winning notification.

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today 29th of october 2005
of winners of the Leeds 2005 held on the 25th of october 2005.The major
sponsors of the Leeds Sport contributed funds for the raffle promo. These
include Adidas, Hyundai, Fuji Film, Master Card, Gillette, Coca cola,
Continental, Toshiba, McDonalds, Emirates Airline and a host of others.

Your email address attached to ticket number 20000;with serial number
027240879 drew the lucky numbers and consequently emerged as one of the
under 1st category. You have therefore been approved of a Prize of One
Million Two Hundred Thousand Pound (£1,200,000.00) credited to file REF
NO.LL3425/802/05.

This is from total prize money of ten Million Pounds shared among the Twenty
International Winners in 1st-3rd category.

All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from
25,000 company email addresses and 30,000,000 individual email addresses
from Australia, New Zealand, America, Europe, North America and Asia as part
of International Promotions Program, which is conducted annually.

We ask that you keep this award strictly confidential until your claim has
been processed and your money remitted to you .To receive your claim, please
contact your claim officer:

Mr. Scott Cole.

Officer In Charge.

Email: scott_cole14@myway.com

All prize money must be claimed in ten working days. After this date, all
funds will be returned as unclaimed. NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary
delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference and batch
numbers in every one of your correspondences with your agent. Furthermore,
should there be any change of your address, email, telephone number does
inform your claims agent within 24 hours. Anybody under the age of 18 is
AUTOMATICALY DISQUALIFIED. Please include your private telephone and fax
numbers while replying.

Congratulations once again from our team of staff and thank you for being
part of our promotional program.

Yours Sincerely,

Ms , Faith Smith

Online Coordinator,

Leeds Lotto Int’l.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam