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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
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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:

• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "uk national lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
• 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!

Fraud email example:

From: UKNL Foundation <richardness01@verizon.net>
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:55:50 -0400
Subject: Award notice(Ref: LSUK/2031/8161/05)

Ref: LSUK/2031/8161/05
Batch: R3/A312-59

Dear Email Owner,

We are happy to announce to you that your email address has won you the sum of £590,983.00
(Five Hundred and Ninety Thousand Nine Hundred and Eighty Three Great British Pounds) in the recent online draw of the
UK National Lottery.
To File for your claims, please contact:

Mr. Richard Ness.
Email: richardness01@verizon.net

You are to provide him With the following information:
Full Name, Contact Address, Country of residence, Age, Sex, Tel, Occupation.

Congratulations once more and from all members and staff of this program.

Yours Truly,
Sir Howard Wright,
Online Coordinator For The UKNL Foundation.

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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam