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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.
• 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.
  • +31616937883 (Netherlands, prepaid 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.
  • acculot@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: accunl@accunl0.orangehome.co.uk
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 09:11:03 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: CONFIRMATION FOR YOUR EMAIL WINNING NUMBER AC/REF4121100.


CONFIRMATION FOR YOUR EMAIL WINNING NUMBER AC/REF4121100.
Dear Winner:
We wish to inform you of the Yearly sweepstakes program that your Email
Address has won an Award sum of (US$ 1,500,000.00) One Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars
only from ACCUL LOTTO. NL sponsored by the MICROSOFT EXPLORATION to
encourage internet users. Please contact your claims officer below for your
Claim:
*****************************************************
Name: Dr. Dennis Schafer
Email: acculot@aim.com
Tel:+31 616 937 883
Fax: +31-84-737-2956
******************************************************
You are also advice to provide him with the following information:
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
WINNING INFORMATIONS:
Ref Number: AC/REF4121100, Ticket Number:ACL 2315620015478, serial
Number AC45GM457825, Lucky Numbers: 57-23-56-10-02-57, Batch Number:
ACL/2986542754/TM, Lottery Date:30/03/07.
The email lottery draws was conducted from an exclusive list of
980,000.000 e-mail addresses of individual, companies, and corporate bodies
Picked by an advanced automated random computer search ballot system from
The Internet.
Once again congratulations!
Yours Sincerely,
Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Morgan Williams
For Claims Manager
Website:www.acculotto.com

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam