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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: International Courier <office@internationalcouriercompanyplc.org>
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 04:46:55 +0000
Subject: TREAT AS IMMEDIATE.



Dear Frau Hertzer,

Thanks for your mail. Note that if you want to transfer your winning funds to any bank account in any country,you will pay for the cost of transfer charges(C.O.T)which is 1,750pounds to our account officer before your winning funds can be transferred to the bank account that you will provide to us for transfer of your winning funds of 600,000.00pounds.

Also attach a scanned copy of either your driver's license, international passport (photo page) or any other legally identifying document.
Note: That your prize is in a suspense account and protected by a Hardcover Insurance Policy, which makes it impossible to deduct any amount from the money before it has been remitted to you. This means that the above charges cannot be deducted from the prize and hence must be provided by you before your prize is transferred to you.
So make sure you get back to us as sson as possible,so that we can instruct you on how to make the payment for the cost of transfer charges(C.O.T) to our account officer.

Regards
Mr.Adams White.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam