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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
  (+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 about the following email:

• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "euro afro american lottery promotion"
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
  • "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
• 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.
  • +27732058578 (South Africa, prepaid mobile phone)
• 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.
  • mailbox@mailbox.co.za
  • mailbox@mailbox.co.za

Fraud email example:

From: "National Lottery South Africa" <lottoresultssa3@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 14:03:10 +0200
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!


Euro Afro American Lottery Promotion Switzerland
>From the desk of: Mrs. Linda Altman

Dear Sir/Madam

CONGRATULATIONS FOR YOUR WINNING.

We happily announce to you the draw of South African 2010 World cup Bid
lottery Award International program held in Zurich, Switzerland. Your e-mail
address attached to ticket number: B9665 75604546 1978 with! Serial number
975600 drew the winning: 60/84/27/17/36, which subsequently won you the
lottery award in the 2nd category. Your name has therefore been approved to
claim a total sum of US$600,000.00 (Six Hundred Thousand United States
Dollars) in cash credited to file KPC/9030108308/059.

This is from a total cash prize of US$ 120,000,000.00 (One hundred and
twenty million United States dollars) shared among the first 200 lucky
winners in this category worldwide. Please note that your lucky winning
number falls within our lottery booklet representative office in South
Africa as indicate in the play coupon. In view of this, your US
$600,000.00(Six Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) would be
released to you
through the assistance of our agent with First National Bank (FNB) in South
Africa. Our agent will commence immediately the process to facilitate the
release of your prize as soon as you contact him.

All participants were selected randomly from Worldwide Web sites through
computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000,00 companies and
individual email addresses. The lottery program was organized to promote
South Africa's 2010 world cup hosting right. For security reasons, you are
advised to keep your winning information confidential till your winning is
processed and your money remitted to you through bank transfer. This is part
of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and abuse of this
program by some unscrupulous elements.

You are advised to file for your claim immediately through our agent with
First National Bank South Africa Mr. Coleman Selota immediately you receive
this message because you stand a risk of loosing the prize if you fail to
file your claim within a month from the day you received this notification.

His e-mail address is
fnb-mailbox@mailbox.co.za<http://by114fd.bay114.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=718dbe5b387e88769ef874fe5a27d0f7041b1b82926b2f4d84c96278bbf54246&mailto=1&to=fnb-mailbox@mailbox.co.za&msg=2931192B-A361-4D54-934F-45F90C7B0E06%20>
You can also call him on: +27 732058578

Yours sincerely,
Mrs. Linda Altman

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam