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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:

• 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!

Fraud email example:

From: "Mariah Green" <mgreen775@msn.com>
Reply-To: lottoservice_cordinator@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:20:13 +0000
Subject: Batch number: 12/25/DC34

From: Mrs. Mariah Green
World Lotto Organization
32 Ledgers Way
Somerset BA11 2UD
England-UK

File number: 580-66-8591
Batch number: 12/25/DC34

RE: WINNING NOTIFICATION
We happily announce to you the draw of the London World Lottery programs
held on the 30th of December 2005 in England U.K. Your e-mail address was
matched to ticket number: B9564 75604545 with Serial number 97560 drew the
winning: 59/84/26/17/35, which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd
category.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of 500,000.00 GBP
(Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pounds) in
cash credited to file WLO/9080118308/02.This is from a total cash prize of
37,000,000.00GBP (Thirty Seven Million Great Britain Pounds) shared amongst
the first Twenty (20) lucky winners in this category World-wide. Please note
that your lucky winning number falls within our Afro booklet representative
office in England as indicated in your play coupon.

In view of this, your 500,000.00GBP (Five Hundred Thousans Great Britain
Pounds Only) would be released to you by our payment center in England. Our
Payment Center will immediately commence
the process to facilitate the release of your winning amount as soon as you
contact them. Be informed that all participants were selected randomly from
World Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from over
12,000,000 companies and individuals.

This promotion takes place annually. For security reasons, you are advised
to keep your winning information strictly confidential till your claims is
processed and your winning amount is 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
by some unscrupulous elements.

Please be informed that all winning must be claimed before 30 days receive
this information and to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please
quote your reference/batch numbers in any correspondences with us or our
payment center. You are advised to acknowledge the receipt of this
information in order
to give you a guide line on how to contact our payment center in Europe.

Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this program that
has successfully won this competition. Thank you for being part of our
promotional lottery Program.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Mariah Green
Cordinator (W.L.O)

N.B: This information transmitted is only for the person or Entity to which
it is addressed and may contain Confidential or privileged materials. Any
review, Retransmission, dissemination or other use of this Information, or
taking of any action in reliance upon this information, by person or
entities other
than the Intended recipient is prohibited.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam