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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:

• 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:
  • "fiduciary 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 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.
  • fiduciary_office8@myway.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "william gerry" <wilygerry20@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: fiduciary_office8@myway.com
Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2007 17:16:53 +0000
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION !!!(You won £800.000! Yahoo! Mail congratulates
you! )

Messenger Yahoo! Lottery Results You won £800.000! Yahoo! Mail congratulates you!

Yahoo! Mail announce you as one of the 10 lucky winners in the ongoing  Yahoo Lottery Draw held on the18th of November, 2006.  All 10 winning email addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 50,000,000 international emails each from Canada , Australia , United States , Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually,consequently, you have been approved for a total pay out of 800,000.00 GBP (EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND GREAT BRITISH POUNDS STERLING ).   This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomerate of some multinational companies as part of their social responsibility to the citizens in the communities where they have operational base. Further more your details(e-mail address) falls within our British representative office in United Kingdom , as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of  800,000.00 GBP will be released to you from this regional branch office in UK. HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE These are your identification numbers.......................  Batch number.....................Lwh 09445  Lotto number.......................Lwh09446  Winning number...................Lwh09447 Yahoo!'s Agent for Notice of claims of copyright or other intellectual property infringement can be reached as follows: FIDUCIARY AGENT Email: FIDUCIARY_OFFICE8@MYWAY.COM You are to send the completed verification form below to the our Agent in the United Kingdom whose email address is given above so that you will be advised on what to do  to get your prize money. Congratulations once more!! 1. FULL NAME 2. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN 3. PRESENT ADRESS. 4. DATE OF BIRTH 5. OCCUPATION 6. TELEPHONE NUMBER 6. FAX NUMBER (IF ANY) 7. MARITAL STATUS 8. WINNING NUMBER, BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER. 9. DATE NOTIFIED 10.AMOUNT WON 11.NAME OF LOTTERY For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-selected winner or unofficial personnel. Yours Sincerely,   Dr WILLIAM GERRI (PHD) LOTTO CO-ORDINATOR. The Yahoo.com staff Yahoo.com http://www.yahoo.com  Yahoo! Lottery    Results                                        Yahoo! Lottery is a free service that does not require you to register or be a Yahoo! registered user before winning.

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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam