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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.

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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 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.
  • +447040101519 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
• 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.
  • claimsdepartment_onlineagent@yahoo.co.uk

Fraud email example:

From: "National Lottery" <onlinesweepstakespromotion006@msn.com>
Date: Sun, 08 Jan 2006 00:04:38 +0000
Subject: ***WINNING NOTIFICATION***

UK NATIONAL LOTTERY P.O.Box 1010 Liver pool, L701NL, United Kingdom.   Ref: LSUK/2031/8161/05 Batch: R3/A312-59            SUBJECT: WINNING NOTIFICATION!!!!!:   We happily announce to you the draw # 1042 of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY,online sweepstakes international promotion held on Saturday 17th December, 2005. Your e-mail address attached  to ticket number:56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers:     (bonus no.03) subsequently won you the lottery in  the Second  category i.e match 6 plus bonus. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £530,969{Five Hundred and Thirty Thousand, Nine Hundred and Sixty Nine Pounds Sterling} in cash credited to file number:KPC/9080118308/02. This is from a total cash prize of £4,247,752  {One Million, Six Hundred and Fifty Four Thousand Five hundred and Forty Four Great  Britain Pounds sterlings} shared amongst the {8} lucky winners in the JACKPOT CATEGORY i.e Match  6 plus bonus. All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from over 200,000 Individual emails,union associations and corporate bodies that are listed online. This promotion takes place weekly.    To file for your claim,you are required to immediately contact the fiduciary/claims agent assigned to you at the email below with the following information: contact official: Mr Mark Roger contact email: claimsdepartment_onlineagent@yahoo.co.uk Tel: +44 704 010 1519 Provide him with the information below: 1.Name: 2.Address: 3.Marital Status: 4.Occupation: 5.Age: 6.Sex: 7.Nationality: 8.Country Of Residence: 9.Telephone Number: 10.Fax Number: 11.Draw Number above: That way your Winnings Certificate and all other relevant documents/paperwork can be prepared for you.  Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our British booklet representative office in London as indicated in our play coupon. In view of this, your £530,969{Five Hundred and Thirty Thousand, Nine Hundred and Sixty Nine Pounds Sterling} would be released to you by our affiliate Forwarding service in London. Our  agent will immediately commence the process 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 till your claims is processed  and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claims and unwarranted abuse of this program. Congratulations once again for being one of our lucky winners in this edition.   Yours faithfully, Sir  Jones Dutcher. International Coordinator for UK NATIONAL LOTTERY Sweepstakes International Promotions Program

 

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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam