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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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• What can you do when you receive 419 spam
  
  
• Spam archive, Daily index
  

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:
  • "international lottery programme" (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
• 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: "from mrs Carol Sweet" <customercare0010@yahoo.com> (may be fake)
Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 18:25:41 +0400
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS! CONGRATULATIONS!!CONGRATULATIONS!!!(your email has,won)

Dear Sir/Madam,
We are delighted to inform you of your prize release on the 28th
July,2007
from the Australian International Lottery programme. Which is fully
based
on an electronic selection of winners using their e-mail addresses
form
some site.Your email address was attached to ticket number; 47001725,

serial number 7741137002 This batch draws the lucky numbers as
follows
5-13-33-37-42bonus number 17,which consequently won the lottery in the
second category. You here by have been approved a lump sum pay of
US$200,000.00 (TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) in cash credit file ref:
/HW
47509/02 from the total cash prize shared amongst eight lucky
winners in
this category. All participant were selected through a computer
balloting
system drawn form Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada,
Australia, United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and
Oceania as
part of our international promotions program which is conducted
annually.
This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomerate of some
multinational companies as part of their social responsibility to the
citizens in the communities where they have operational base. Further
more
your details(e-mail address) falls within our European representative
office in Amsterdam,Holland, as indicated in your play coupon and your
prize of US$350,000.00 will be released to you from this regional
branch
office in UNITED ARABU EMIRATES[DUBAI].We hope with part of your prize, you will
participate
in our end of year high stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw.
HOW
TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE: Simply contact our fiducial agent, Rev Alfred
Newman to file for your claim
.
Please quote your reference, batch and winning number which can be
found on
the top left corner of this notification as well as your full name,
address
and telephone number to help locate your file easily. For security
reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential
from the public until your claim is processed and your prize
released
to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double
claiming
and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participant
or
unofficial personnel. Note, all winnings MUST be claimed after 30 days
otherwise all funds will be returned as Unclaimed and

eventually donated to charity organizations.
Congratulations once again on your winnings!!!
Best Regards
Carol Sweet
(co-ordinator)

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam