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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:
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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "22 garden close, stamford" (address often used in lottery scams)
  • "the bmw automobile company" (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.
  • +447011140801 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
• 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.
  • bmw_claimsagentcarl@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: bmw_claimsagentcarl@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 06:42:14 +1300
Subject: YOU HAVE WON!!!:REF:BMWP/556543450906

THE INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS
PROMOTION DEPARTMENT OF
THE BMW AUTOMOBILE COMPANY.
22 Garden Close, Stamford,
Lincs, PE9 2YP, London
United Kingdom.


Dear Winner,
This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of £450,000.00 (Four hundred and Fifty Thousand
Great British pounds) and brand new BMW 5 Series Car in this year BMW LOTTERY PROGRAMME.Each email address was attached
to a ticket number and your email address with Ticket number: 5647600545188 and serial number: BMWP/556543450906 was
randomly selected as the star prize winner amongst other consolation prize winners.To claim your prize Contact the claim
office with the underlisted informations as soon as possible:
Name,Address,Country,Age,Sex,Occupation,Phone,Fax.
==========================================
Mr. CARL DOUGLAS
Phone: +447011140801
Email: bmw_claimsagentcarl@yahoo.co.uk
=======================================

NOTE:The selection process was carried out through random selection in our Computerized Email Selection System
(C.E.S.S.) from a database of over a million email addresses from the world wide web drawn from all the continents of
the world

HELEN UMFLEET
DIRECTOR OF PROMOTIONS,
BMW AUTOMOBILE.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM.



COPYRIGHT ©2007. BMW AUTOMOBILE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam