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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
  (+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.
• 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.
  • +447045740298 (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.
  • dr_richallen001@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Sweeptakes Online Lottery" <lotteryoffice1@btconnect.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 05:52:56 +0100
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION!!!

BRITISH NATIONAL LOTTERY
14 FRATON ROAD
FULHAM, LONDON
Ref: EAASL/941OYI/02/SHYN
Batch:12/25/0034

WINNING NOTIFICATION:

Dear Mr/Mrs/Sir/Madam:

This is to inform you that your email address has won the british lottery which was held recently. Your email with serial number 5388/02 and ticket number 0431505 hit the jackpot .
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £750,000.00 Seven Hundred And Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds, ) in cash credited to file KPC/9080118308/02/SHYN. This is from a total cash prize of £7.5 Million pounds shared among the first Ten (10) lucky winners in this category.

This results is now released to you and your email address attached to Ticket No:0431505 with the Lucky No:01,02,18,25,34,45,31. which won the lottery in the A Category. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from Microsoft users from company and individual email addresses users.Be advice to keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program,For the release of your winning,kindly contact our Payment Representative in charge of your fund.

Name : Dr. Richard Allen
Email Address :dr_richallen001@yahoo.co.uk
Tel : +44 70457 40298

You are to quote your lucky number for confirmation on your winning.All winning must be claimed within the two weeks of receipt of this mail.After this date all unclaimed funds will be retured. Please note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your reference number in all correspondence.

Yours faithfully,
Mrs.Julie Van-hans
Lottery Coordinator.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam