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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• 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.
  • +447031967656 (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.
  • verificationdept_wclg011@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "info@webcountylottery.co.uk" <webcountygames@ny.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 23:10:49 -0500
Subject: eMAIL PRIZE ALERT!!

The County Group,:
Operators of The Webcounty Lottery Games UK.
LIVERPOOL AINTREE, LIVERPOOL. L30 1RD.
REF Nº: UKL/74-A0802742006
BATCH Nº: 2006UKL-01

    DEAR WINNER

  The Webcounty Lottery Games wishes to inform you that the results of the E-mail address ballot lottery international program by Great Britain held on 1st of June, 2006. Your email account have been picked as a winner of a lump sum pay out of Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain pounds (500,000 00 pounds sterlings) in cash credited to file REF NO. REF: UKON-5464K2/71. This is from total prize money of GBP 2, 000, 000.00 shared among the FOUR (4) international winners in this category.

 All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web through computer balloting system drawn from over 100,000 names database, union associations and corporate bodies that are listed online. This promotion is this year's United Kingdom National Lottery New Year bonanza. The County Group, operators of the United Kingdom Webcounty Lottery Games is approved by the British Gaming Board and also Licensed by the The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR).

 All winning must be claimed not later than 14 working days from this notification. After this time all unclaimed funds will be retured to European Union Treasury as unclaimed. Please note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your reference number in all correspondence.

 Be advice to keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol and measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program.
To begin your claim, please contact your claims agent:

Mr Bartholomew Simms
Email: verificationdept_wclg011@yahoo.com.hk
Tel: +44-703-196-7656

He will brief you on steps to be taken for due processing and remittance of your prize money.

Note below your winning details:

Ticket Nº: 22-1356-4096-988
Serial Nº: A5612/44
Lucky Nº:  45-67-66-56-84-01 Bonus- #7
File REF Nº:  WCLG/22-A0802742006
BATCH Nº: 2006WCLG-06

Congratulations again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our promotions program.
Sincerely,

Rev. Flora Mega
Online Coordinator,
COUNTY GROUP,
Operator of The Webcounty Lottery.

N.B. Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the Winners will result to disqualification.

NOTE: Do not reply this mail. You are to contact your claims officer immediately. In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference number in every one of your correspondences.

*IMPORTANT* FILL OUT THIS WINNERS VERIFICATION FORM BELOW:
Your application for the claim of lottery winning prize will be duly processed and settlement made upon certification.

Hence, carefully fill in the appropriate information in the space provided below for record purposes to facilitate our immediate commencement of your claims process. The completed form should be sent to your claims agent for immediate commencement of prize remittance.

*Name of Beneficiary:
*Address:
*City/State:
*Nationality:
*Sex:
*Email Address:
*Tel:
*Occupation:
*Next of Kin:
*Age:
*AMOUNT WON:
*In Figures:
*In Words:
*Lucky Nos:
*Ticket No:

Attach a scanned copy of either your driver's linece or international passport for identification purpose after proper verification and processing of your winnings has been carried out.

OFFICE USE ONLY

Verified by:________________

Confirmed by: ________________

CLAIMS AGENT’S SIGNATURE:________________

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam