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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
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• 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.

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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!

Fraud email example:

From: universalpromotion@zipmail.com.br
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 14:54:49 +0200
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Organizer=27s=20Approval=20Of=20Your=20Win?=

Organizer's Approval Of Your Win
UNIVERSAL PROMOTION LOTTERY
RE REF: AD/340/103.
OUR REF:22/AMST005164/NA
BATCH NUMBER:SNL41484/06
Dear Winner,
NOTICE
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the National Gold lottery
programs held on AUGUST 28 ,2006 your e-mail address were attached to one
of the ten winning ticket numbers 85210 with game Number 8286529.You have
therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of 500,000.00 (Five hundred
thousand Euros)
CONGRATULATIONS!!
All participants were selected through a computer ballot system from our
sponsors databases, including over 50,000 companies and 150,000 individual
E-mail addresses and names submitted by our agents drawn from Asia, Africa,
Europe, North And South America, Oceania and around the world.
To file for your urgent claim, please contact our approved agent for your
region.
Mr. Peter Sneider
Uinversal Agency
E-mail: univagency@aol.com
It is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and to minimize
identification difficulties to advise you to keep this information confidential
until your claim is
processed successfully and to void unwarranted abuse of this program by
some participants, please note that you will be required to pay for the
issuance of your winning certificate and all winnings must be claimed not
later than SEPTEMBER 30,2006. after this date all unclaimed winnings will
be null and void. In Order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications
remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers in all correspondence.
Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agents
assoon as possible.
Yours
faithfully
Mrs.Kathe Jong.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam