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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.

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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.
  • bill@consultant.com

Fraud email example:

From: "INFO LOTTERY" <infolottery24@msn.com>
Reply-To: nelson-bill@consultant.com
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2006 13:16:39 +0000
Subject: Congratulations

INFO LOTTERY
E-mail:infolottery24@msn.com
Tromsodreef 72e, 3043 CK
Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Dear Winner,

We are pleased to congratulate and inform you of the exclusive result of the
Lucky lottery program held on the 23rd of Nov 2005, your e-mail address
attached to ticket number: 51E621K2-16 with serial number: 84702-162, drew
lucky numbers: 5-64-12-3-7-88 which onsequently won in the 2nd category. You
have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay-out of 1,000,000.00 Euros
(One Million euros).

All participants were selected by a comp uter ballot system drawn from over
45,000 company and 52,000,000 individual email addresses and names
worldwide. This promotional lottery program is first of its kind. It was
promoted and sponsored by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei.
We hope that with part of your winning, you will participate in our
forthcoming 20 MILLION EURO GRAND SUPER.For security reasons, we advise you
to keep your Winning Information confidential until your claim has been
processed and your prize fund remitted to you.

This is a part of our security protocol to curb double claiming and
unwarranted abuse of this system by unscrupulous individuals. please, you
are requested to come personally to file in your claim. However, if you
cannot make it to etherlands, please contact the below approved attorney
tohelp you make your claim.


Nelson Bill
E-mail:nelson-bill@consultant.com
Aalsmeer, Netherlands.

Please remember that all winnings must be claimed not later than THREE WEEKS
FROM THE DATE OF THiS NOTIFICATION. All unclaimed prizes will be null and
void. In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please
remember to quote your reference and batch numbers (Reference number to:
Ref. : 11G8/632E0714/005 , Batch: 006389142-NL04) to the
attorney.Furthermore, should there be any change of e-mail address do inform
us as soon as possible. Congratulations once more from our members of staff
and thank you for being part of our promotional lottery program.
Note: Anybody under the age of 18 is automatically disqualified.

Best wishes,

Mr. Andre Schulten
Management

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam