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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "global mega lottery" (no such lottery exists)
• 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.
  • +27832109758 (South Africa, 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.
  • totteny_204@yahoo.com

Fraud email example:

From: "GLOBAL MEGA LOTTERY" <glo_lotery_draw90@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:00:43 +0100
Subject: Congratulations!

GLOBAL MEGA LOTTERY

Universal Buildiing, 132 - 133 Park Hurst
Balfour - Unite 1440
Johannesburg, Gauteng 2001
SOUTH AFRICA
GLOBAL MEGA LOTTERY.
TEL:+27 83 2109758,

Congratulations!

The Global Mega Lottery Promotion team is proud to inform you that you have won USD 850,000.00 Why you have won Your E-mail address is one of 200 lucky Addresses who have won in the weekly Promotion.

See below how to claim your prize.

 

Details on the Winnings

Your Winning Reference Number is: FLS-ZR39-825P-4

 Batch Number:  74-263-BBN.

TICKET NUMBER:100-309-7482

SERAIL NUMBER:513-10

WINNING NUMBERS:02,09,22,23,24,30(05)

Just contact our processing manager below for claiming of your prize and remember to quote your reference and Batch Number for easy processing of your prize. That's it!

Processing Manager: Mr. Richard Baloyi

 

EMAIL:totteny_204@yahoo.com
TEL:+27 83 210 9758,

 

Congratulations again and have a lot of fun. The International Mega Promotion team.you are therefore advised to include all this details.

 

1)Bank account information where you want the fund to be transfer.

2)Telephone number and Fax number

3)your Residence address

4)Date of Birth

5)place of employment and position

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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam