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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:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "processing fee" (this will cost you money - that's what the scam is about)
• 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.
  • +66835619209 (Thailand, probably a mobile phone)

Fraud email example:

From: "FROM USAID ORGANIZATION" <usaid@usaid.gov> (may be fake)
Reply-To: regional_managers@oued.org
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 17:37:02 -0800
Subject: Please read this information well

USAID U.S VISA LOTTERY PROMOTION

FROM THE DESK OF THE CO-ORDINATORS OF;
USAID U.S VISA LOTTERY PROMOTION,
Kentucky U.S Consulate General,
1009-4th street-Louisville-KY,40203-3207,Friday 22nd December 2006 02:57:01-0800
www.usaid.gov/

Dear winner,
*We wish to notify you that you had been selected as one of the lucky winner of the U.S Visa lottery program through our e-mail address ballot lottery international program held on the 2nd of December 2006 in-Helsinki (Poland)

*Your registered e-mail address was extracted alongside five thousand other e-mail addresses through computer random extraction of e-mail addresses from worldwide registered web-sites during the 33-days extraction period that ran from 12.00 AM on 20 October 2006 until midnight November 22, 2006 and your e-mail address was selected as one of the lucky winning e-mail address through computer draw system conducted by our team of proffesionals*

*This special visa program is new and was innovated last year November by USAID; the program is designed to be held every year. The aim and objectives of the program is to give free visa's to citizens of developing countries around the world to enable them travel to U.S and start a new life and work*

*Therefore seventy five (75) US visa's was released in this regard,the lottery result was released on the 18th of December 2006,you are among the selected (75) lucky winner's and we are sending the winning notification directly to you through the e-mail address that was selected*

*Your visa winner's identity number is: MM-52047 :Your visa duration is 10 years multiple entries to the U.S, it is renewable upon expiration and it permits you to work, study and own properties in the U.S*

*Approximately Forty five (45) selected lucky winner's including you today (Friday 29th December 2006) had been notified and may now contact our agents in all designated regions for the immediate process to claim their visas,Our visa agents had been apportioned among six geographic regions, all selected lucky winner's will need to act on their claims applications quickly before the expiration of the visa claim date-line which is on the 27th of January 2007.No additional time*

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION!

BASIC QUESTION;
1.How was I selected as one of the lucky winner of the visa lottery program?
*Your registered e-mail address was extracted alongside 6.3million other e-mail addresses through computer random extraction from world wide registered web-sites, during the 33-days extraction period that ran from 12.00 AM on October 20,2006, until midnight, November,22 2006, you are selected as one of the lucky winner's through computer draw system conducted by our team of professionals.

N.B: Your visa winning details falls within our Asia /pacific booklet representative office as indicated in the draw system, regarding that:
DO CONTACT OUR ASIA/PACIFIC VISA PROCESSING AGENT FOR YOUR VISA FORM AND REQUIREMENTS VIA THIS CONTACT DETAILS:

NAME: MR.FREDRICK ANDERSON.
Office Address: Indra Tower suite105, 75/6 wireless road panthumwan-Bangkok-Thailand.
Tel: +66-835-619-209, +66-847-269-536
Fax: +66-2251-9977
Email: winner_servicess@sfax.ws
Alternative Email: regional_managers@oued.org

N.B: Visa processing fee (us$350.00 )

BENEFITS:
Usaid has made free-air tickets avaliable for the entire lucky winners in its efforts to support the program,your air ticket will be processed and send to you by our Asia/pacific agent.

Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Monica Williams.
Secretary-General-US-Consulate-Kentucky.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam