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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:
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "cheque " (Beware of any scheme that involves cashing checks or money orders and then wiring a portion of the funds somewhere - you'll be liable for the entire amount if the checks or money orders turn out to be fake, even after you have received and forwarded cash)
  • "cheques " (Beware of any scheme that involves cashing checks or money orders and then wiring a portion of the funds somewhere - you'll be liable for the entire amount if the checks or money orders turn out to be fake, even after you have received and forwarded cash)
• 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!
• Western Union money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. It is the preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.
• 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.
  • +66869717056 (Thailand, probably a mobile phone)
• 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.
  • uniairth@yahoo.com
  • dv_lottory_uniair@yahoo.com

Fraud email example:

From: "UniAir" <"webmas..."@my-ste.demon.co.uk> (may be fake)
Reply-To: uniairthai@walla.com
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:05:12 +0700
Subject: Please contact Mr.Somchai urgently.

From: The Desk of The CEO
UniAiR annual lottery program
Winning number: 0610060645200385
Serial net batch number: 187561691619
Attn:
Congratulations, you have been selected as one of the lucky winners in our new year lottery program through our Internet balloting email extracting and screening machine, your application was applied and processed by our Internet balloting email extracting and screening machine which randomly extracts and screens millions of email addresses around the world.
This lottery program is held annually as part of UniAiR new year lottery promotions. You are the 2ND among our 5 lucky winners and you have therefore been awarded a lump sum payout of USD1,003,198.5 (One million, three thousand one hundred and ninety-eight U.S Dollars, 5 cent)
Your winning number is: 0610060645200385 and your serial net batch number is: 187561691619. Please note that there were no ticket sellouts in our lottery program, all our past and present winners were selected randomly through the Internet balloting email extracting and screening machine.
In this regards you are advised to forward the following requirements urgently to Mr.Somchai by email scanning attachments for faster processing, to enable us begin the processing of your winning documents and money transfer:
(1.)Write in full, your telephone number, postal and residential address.
(2.)Scanned copy of your recent passport photograph.
(3.)Scanned copy of the main information page of your national passport or I.D card or driving license.
(4.)Acceptance fee: US$1,085 (One-Thousand & Eighty-Five U.S Dollars) This fee should be payed through Western Union Money Transfer addressed to the second secretary of UniAiR. Providing the above requirements will assure you your winning certificate and prize money bank cheque which we shall post to you through express courier service.
Important Notice:
The prize money will be remitted to you in full as soon as we receive all the requirements listed above. Please inform Mr.Somchai the means you wish to receive your prize money, we prefer sending our winners bank cheques by courier service but we can also send you the prize money by bank transfer or Western Union Money Transfer if you wish.
We shall be anticipating your reply soon.
Thanks
Mr.Bichnga Tran
UniAiR SouthEast Asia Zonal office.
N.B: REPLY THIS EMAIL WINNING NOTIFICATION MESSAGE ONLY TO THE CLAIMS AGENT ASSIGNED TO HANDLE YOUR MONEY TRANSFER PROCESS AND DOCUMENTS, HE WILL GUIDE YOU THROUGH YOUR MONEY REMITTANCE AND DOCUMENTS PROCESSING, HIS CONTACT DETAILS ARE LISTED BELOW:
Mr.Uchida Somchai

EMAIL: uniairthai@walla.com <mailto:uniairthai@walla.com> uniairth@yahoo.com <http://us.f588.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=uniairth@yahoo.com> and dv_lottory_uniair@yahoo.com <http://us.f588.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=dv_lottory_uniair@yahoo.com>
PHONE: +66-869717056
WEBSITE: http//www.uniair.com.tw
N.B: Please note and save the phone number and email addresses listed above for future correspondence at anytime with Mr.Somchai.
For strict security reasons, endeavor to reply this email winning notification message only to the 3 email addresses: uniairth@yahoo.com <http://us.f588.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=uniairth@yahoo.com> dv_lottory_uniair@yahoo.com <http://us.f588.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=dv_lottory_uniair@yahoo.com> and uniairthai@walla.com <mailto:uniairthai@walla.com>

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam