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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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• 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.
• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "yahoo lottery inc" (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "greater london" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
• 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.
  • +447024019454 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
  • +447005964787 (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.
  • jhsrichards@hotmail.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Mrs. Maria A. Cruz" <jwsconsults57@excite.com>
Reply-To: jwsconsult7@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2007 07:51:57 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Official Notification from Yahoo.


Yahoo Lottery Incorporation
Barley House, Har Road
Sutton, Greater London
SM1 4TE United Kingdom.

Dear winner

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Nine Hundred Fifty thousand, Great Britain Pound Starlings (£950.000.00) for the month of September 2007. Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO LOTTERY INC. YAHOO collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online; six people are selected Quarterly to benefit from this promotion and you are one of the Selected Winners at this quarter.

These are your identification numbers:
Batch number.....................YM 09102XM
Ref number.......................YM35447XM
Winning number...................YM0988

You are to contact the event’s manager.

However you will have to submit the following information to the event Manager.
1. Full name..............2. Contact Address........3. Age....................4. Telephone Number.......5.Sex....................6.Occupation...........7.State.................8.Country................9. Your Reference and Batch number at the top of this mail:

CONTACT EVENTS MANAGER:
Name: Mr. Johnson Richards
Tel: +447024019454, +447045708628
Fax: +44 7005 964787
Email: jhsrichards@hotmail.co.uk

Winners shall be paid in accordance with his/her Settlement Centre. Yahoo Prize Award must be claimed no later than 21 days from date of Draw Notification. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.

For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claim is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize.

Congratulations.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Maria A. Cruz




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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam