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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:

• 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 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.
  • lottoagent99@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: UKNL Foundation<lottoagent99@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2007 03:56:26 +0300
Subject: Ref: UK/9420X2/68


BRITISH LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS:
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Dear Winner,
We are pleased to inform you of the final announcement of the British Lottery Online Promo Programme held on Wednesday
31st of OCTOBER 2007.
The draw was done electronically with several email addresses provided to this office by webmail providers to enhance
the utilization of the internet.Your email address attached to Reference Number UK/9420X2/68 was picked as one of the
ten winning email addresses.This has qualified
you to claim the total cash prize Of £815,502 in cash.
To file for your claims and due remittance of funds
contact:PHILIP HARGREAVES with the following details:
Name/ Age/Address/ Occupation/and Telephone No;
via Email;lottoagent99@yahoo.co.uk

Yours Truly
Anne Wright(Online Coordinator)

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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam