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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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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:
  • "national lottery promotion" (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "transfer of your funds" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
  • "deadline" (they are rushing you so you don't have time to think properly)
• 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.
  • +447045733089 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: Online Account Dept <barclbkplck@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: info@barclays.e-bankers.org.uk
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:32:36 +0100 (BST)
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?q?BARCLAYS=20BANK=20PLC=AE=20(Attention:)=20?=



BARCLAYS BANK PLC®
1 CHURCHILL PLACE, LONDON E14 5HP,
LONDON, UK.
27th August, 2007.

Attention:,

This is to acknowledge the receipt of your mail. We are pleased to officially valid date the winning notification we received from the Honda Company International Lottery Promotion.


You will receive the sum of £750,000.00 (SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND GREAT BRITAIN POUNDS STERLING) from us as the winner of the last sweepstake of Honda Company Lotto International.

At the moment your prize (£750,000.00) is domiciled in an Escrow Account (EA) of the Central Bank of United Kingdom , which is our Apex Bank.

TWO OPTIONS TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE:

I) You can give us the mandate to transfer your funds out of the escrow account, on your behalf, for onward remittance to your local bank account in your country.


II) You can come to our office here in the UK in person, to claim your prize yourself.

IMPORTANT: please be informed that there are tough requirements for claiming prizes in person; that's if you decide to come to our office yourself to make claims. However, when we claim it on your behalf and transfer it to you, it is easier and timely especially when you consider the deadline given by Honda Company Lotto International.

With our help, your prize will be released to your local account in your country within 48hours; the claiming/releasing/transfer of your funds from here to your local account in your country will not take more than 48hours.

Please make a choice of how you wish to claim your prize so that the details of how to go about it can be released to you. You have less than 5-days to complete the transfer of your funds from the UK to your local bank account in your country.

We look forward to an enduring banking relationship with you.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Yours in service,

Herod Jorgensen (Sir)
(HEAD OF OPERATION)
FOREIGN/LOCAL OPERATIONS
BARCLAYS BANK PLC®
Tel: +44-704-573-3089
Fax: +44-703-040-1224

COPYRIGHT © 2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED




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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam