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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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• 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:

• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • " lotto international " (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• 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.
  • +447005964629 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
  • +448704797601 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: "GLEN FINNAN & ASSOCIATES LTD," <gl.finnan@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:13:59 +0100 (BST)
Subject: CLAIMS PROCEDURE/URGENT ATTENTION.


Attention: Emmy Schaefder

Upon receipt of a mail from the International (Online) Coordinator of the Postcode lotto International email lottery then I must say you are certainly a winner which I will use this medium to congratulate you on behalf of the POSTCODE LOTTO International Promotions Program.

I am Colin Breed, fiduciary agent assigned to you to render assistance and guide you with your winning claims process. I know you must be a little amazed at this if I may say, but you are a winner.

You were lucky to be picked from a random draw from different websites across the globe; this is how your email address was selected to be one of the lucky winners.
With regards to your file that I got on my desk this morning, your email address attached to Reference number NL/BR356791/NU07 and Serial number NL/BR33756/HY07, and consequently won the lottery in the "B" Category.

Before your claims will be verified, you will need to send us the requested details below

VERIFICATION REQUIREMENT
Name:
Address:
Marital Status:
Occupation:
Age:
Sex:
Nationality:
Country of Residence:
Telephone Number:
Mobile/Cell Phone Number:
Fax Number:
Email Address:
Draw Number:

Your claim will then be verified. Once this is done, your Winning Certificate will be prepared and sent to you along with instructions on how to proceed. You can be sure that your prize winning will be processed in no time.

WARNING: Be sure to keep your winning numbers and claims confidential to yourself alone to avoid double claiming and abuse of this program because it will result in automatic disqualification.

Urgent response needed.

Yours Faithfully


Glen Finnan & Associates Ltd,
United Kingdom
Tel: +44-700-596-4629
Fax: +44-870-479-7601


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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam