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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:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "international lottery programme"
• 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.
  • mrhowardgreg@yahoo.com.au

Fraud email example:

From: "James Ross" <australinainternationallottery2@msn.com>
Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 05:10:25 +0000
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!

Ref: 435062725
Batch: 7050470902/189
Winning no: GB8101/LPRC
CONGRATULATIONS!!

Dear,

We are delighted to inform you of your prize which was released on the
30th of january 2006, from the Australian International Lottery
programme,which is fully based on an electronic selection of winners using
their e-mail addresses from some sites. Your email address was attached to
ticket number; 47001725 07056490102 and serial number 7741134002. This batch
draws the lucky numbers as follows 5-13-33-37-42 and bonus number 17,which
consequently won the lottery in
the second category.

You hereb have been approved a lump sum pay of US$200,000.00 (TWO HUNDRED
THOUSAND DOLLARS) in cash credit file ref: ILP/HW 47509/09 from the total
cash prize shared amongst eight lucky winners in this category. All
participants were selected through a computer balloting system drawn form
Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia,United States,
Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international
promotion program which is conducted annually. This Lottery was promoted and
sponsored by a conglomorate of some multinational companies as part of their
social responsibility to the citizens in the commmunities where they have an
operational base. Furthermore, your details(e-mail address) falls within our
European representative office in Amsterdam, Holland as indicated in your
play coupon and your prize of US$200,000.00 will be released to you from
this regional branch office in NIGERIA. We hope that with part of your
prize, you will participate in our end of year high stakes for US$1.3
Billion international draw.To file for your claim, please contact our
director offinance.
Name :Mr.Howard Greg
E-Mail:mrhowardgreg@yahoo.com.au

Please quote your reference, batch and winning number which can be found
on the top left corner of this notification as well as your full name,
address and telephone number to help locate your file easily.For security
reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from
the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you.This
is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted
taking advantage of this programme by non-participants or unofficial
personnel.Note: all winnings MUST be claimed by the 25th of february, 2006;
otherwise all funds will be returned as Unclaimed and eventually donated to
charity
organisations.

ANYBODY UNDER THE AGE OF 18 IS AUTOMATICALLYDISQAULIFIED.

YOURS SINCERELY,
Mr.James Ross
Autralian Lottery International (co-ordinator)


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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam