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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:

• 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: "Barry maldwyn" <barrymaldwyn@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 20:22:02 +0100
Subject: The Freelotto Company

DEAR BALDEMAR HERT,

WE DID NOT COLLECT YOUR SDDRESS FROM ANYBODY, YOU WHERE IN THE VERY FIRST
EMAIL YOU RECEIVED FROM OUR PROMOTION OFFICER, MISS ALICE MEYER, SEE AN
EXCERPT FROM THAT EMAIL BELOW ON HOW WE GOT YOUR CONTACT;

Dear Winner,

We are please to announce you as one of the 10 lucky winners in the
FreeLotto draw held on the 25th of March 2007. 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's Annual FreeLotto Draw.

YOUR PRIZE MONEY IS BEEN HELD WITH US AT FREELOTTO COMPANY UK. PENDING WHEN
YOU ARE ABLE TO MEET ALL OF THE FOUR CONDITIONS THAT WAS STATED IN THE
PREVIOUS EMAIL I SENT TO YOU. I WILL ALSO ADVICE YOU TO ACT QUICKLY AND
CLAIM YOUR PRIZE MONEY BEFORE THIS WINNING EXPIRES.
I LOOK FORWARD TO RECEIVING ALL THE NEEDED INFORMATION FROM YOU AS SOON AS
POSSIBLE TO ENABLE US SEND YOUR WINNINGS TO YOU.

YOURS SINCERELY,
MR. BARRY MALDWYN
Chief financial Director
The Freelotto Company
TEL: 44 7040 104 182
FAX: 44-87-1256-3783

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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam