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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
  (+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.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claims 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.
  • +447031861157 (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.
  • agentpeterson1@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Lottery Notification Award Winning <loto_a_ww6@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <agentpeterson1@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:29:26 +0200
Subject: YAHOO.COM / HOTMAIL,CONGRATULATION YOU HAVE WON



You won £800,000! Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, congratulates you!
YAHOO/ HOTMAIL,E.T.C,PROMOTION AWARD
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU WON £800,000!

12TH /10 / 2007
Dear Sir/ Madam.
Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, gives members random cash prizes. Today, your account is randomly selected as the one of 12 top winner’s accounts who will get cash prizes from us.

We are happy to inform you that you have won prize money of £800,000 (EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS) for the month of August 2007 lottery win promotion which is organized by yahoo messenger.com every month. YAHOO, and Hotmail collects all the mail id of the people that are online on yahoo,Hotmail among the millions that subscribe to yahoo we only select five people every month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying,

we are congratulating you for been one of the people selected. All participants were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from 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 British representative office in United Kingdom , as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of £800,000 will be released to you from this regional branch office in UK. 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
These are your identification numbers. Batch number..................... Lwh 09445 Lotto number....................... Lwh09446 Winning number...................Lwh09447 To begin your claims kindly contact the International Judiciary Agent. Dr.Peterson WilliamsTell: +44-703 186 1157 Email;( agentpeterson1@yahoo.co.uk )

You are required to forward him with the following details:1. FULL NAME2. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN3. PRESENT ADDRESS.4. DATE OF BIRTH5. OCCUPATION6. TELEPHONE NUMBER6. FAX NUMBER (IF ANY)7. MARITAL STATUS8. WINNING NUMBER, BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER. As soon as you contact your Claims Agent, he will advise you on what to do in order to get your prize money. Congratulations once more!!
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.
Yours Sincerely, Mrs.Veronica AndersonPROMOTION CO-ORDINATOR.The Yahoo.com staffYahoo.com http://www.yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam