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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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• 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.
  • charlestariah@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "charles tariah" <charlestariah@msn.com>
Reply-To: charlestariah@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 14:53:57 +0000
Subject: Urgent Remminder.

From: The director of the Prize Award Department

Reference number:EL/20856740034/04
Number 1 = 27


Batch number 335/6025/SDD

Re: Award Notification (Final Notice).

We are pleased to inform you of the release on the
21st January, 2006, the Result of the EQUILOTTO INTERNATIONAL, UK
promotion program held on the 31st December, 2005. Your email address
attached to the ticket number 187-328285-732 with
serial number 02-14-26-26-44-11 & Lucky Numbers as follows
Number 2 = 46
Number 3 = 11
Number 4 = 22
Number 5 = 87
Number 6 = 47
Number 7 = 37

which consequently won the lottery in the 3rd category. You have
therefore been awarded the lump sum of £3,158,100.00
(three million one hundred and fifty eight thousand, one
hundred British pounds sterling) in cash credited to file
number AE/7203630/04 .This is from the total cash prize off
£78,684,000.00(Seventy Eight million, six hundred and
eighty four thousand British pounds sterling) which is being
shared among Seventeen international lucky winners in
this category!


Due to a mix up of some names and numbers, we strongly recommend that you
keep this award secret from public notice until your
claim has been processed and the money remitted to. This is a part of our
security protocol to avoid double claim and unwanted scams of this
Program by other participants.

All participants were selected through a computer
ballot system drawn from 125,000 email addresses from
all over the world as a part of our International
promotional program, which is done twice annually. We
hope that with a part of your prize, you will take
part in our end of year high Stake #1.3bn lottery.
To avoid fraud and scams, and to begin your claim, Please
contact only your assigned agent, Mr. Charles Tariah,
Foreign Services Manager of APEX SUBSCRIBER AGENTS
via email on: charlestariah@yahoo.co.uk. He will also detail you on the
payment procedure.

All prize money must be claimed no later than 14days from the date of
this notice, as after this date, all funds will be
returned to EQUILOTTO UK, INTERNATIONAL as unclaimed.

In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your
reference and batch number in every correspondence with us, or your agent.
Furthermore, if you have changed your email address,
do contact your agent to notify him of the change.

Congratulations once more for and on behalf of all
members of my staff and thank you for being a part of
our promotions program.

Yours sincerely,
Francois Harrington



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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam