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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:

• 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.
  • stevecox06@fsmail.net

Fraud email example:

From: Sweepstakes International Program. <lotto_nl06@fsmail.net>
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 13:23:54 +0200
Subject: Mrs Gloria Galloway!

Lotto. NL
Meppo Holland
(Customer Services)
Government Accredited Licensed lottery promoters.
International Promotions/Prize Award Department
Login to Website: www.lotto.nl

Attn joewein,

We are please to announce you as one of the 10 lucky winners in the national lottery held on the 4th
June, 2006. All 10 winning addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 50,000,000 international
emails. Your email address emerged alongside 9 others as a category 2 winner in this year Lotto. NL
game draw Consequently, you have therefore been approved for a total pay out of Euro 500,000 (Five
hundred thousand Euros) only. In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember
to quote your reference number and batch numbers:

1, Batch 9484-9006-0076
2, Ref: 637409467-Nll
3, lucky numbers 1-0960-31-444
4,Telphone number
5,Full names

To file for your claim, please contact your claim officer
Name: Steven cox
Tel: +31 -610023280
Fax: +31-84-714-2435
Email: stevecox06@fsmail.net

This will enable the officer to send the claim application form (A4) to you the Beneficiary.
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 to claim your prize. This is
part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program.
Please be warned. Remember, all winnings must be claim not later than June 28th, 2006, after this date,
unclaimed funds will be returned to the Lotto. NL
CONGRATULATIONS!

Yours faithfully,
Mrs Gloria Galloway
Online coordinator
Sweepstakes International Program.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam