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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:
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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.
  • +31642573987 (Netherlands, prepaid mobile phone)
• 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.
  • westfinancegroup@netscape.net

Fraud email example:

From: Ruth Wounter <freeloto@37.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 15:38:14 +0100
Subject: REF NO.LU/NL/2031/8161/04




FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL PRIZE AWARD DEPT
FREELOTTO.COM
Laan van Hoornwijck 765, 8789
DG Rijswijk, The Netherlands.


Attention: Lucky Winner,

WINNING NOTIFICATION FOR CATEGORY "A" WINNER ONLY

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the last final annual draw 30th December 2005, of our
International Lottery Programs. The online freelotto 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: LU/NL/2031/8161/04; Batch Number: N3/A312-59 and
Ticket Number: 025/ 078742, with serial number 1105908 drew the lucky numbers 15-35-09-44-10. You
are therefore to receive a cash prize of 550.000.00 euro (Five Hundred and Fifty Thousand euro) from
the total payout, This is from the total prize money of 18,900,000.00 US Dollars (Eighteen Million, Nine
Hundred Thousand US Dollars) shared among the international winners in our 1st - 4th categories.
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. Simon Van Rossem
Western Finance Group
Cusmoslaan 101
1218 HG, Almere
The Netherlands
TEL: +31-642-573-987
EMAIL ADDRESS: westfinancegroup@netscape.net

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

Send your full Name, Address, Sex. Age, Occupation, Nationality, Country of residence, telephone and
fax number, winning email address, amount won when replying this letter. Remember,

NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later than 15th January 2006, thereafter unclaimed funds would
be included in the next stake. Remember to quote your reference information in all correspondence.

You are to keep all lotto information confidential, especially your reference and ticket numbers. (This is
important as a case of double claims will not be entertained).Members of the affiliate agencies are
automatically not allowed to participate in this program. Furthermore, should there be any change of
address do inform our agent as soon as possible.

Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional
program.

Yours Faithfully,

MRS..RUTH WOUNTER
Promotion Director

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam