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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:
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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:
  • "australian 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: <australian_lottory5@ozu.es>
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:25:44 +0000
Subject: YOU WON US$1,850,000.00, CONTACT OUR DIRECTOR OF FINANCE (MIKE JOHNSON)immediately!

YOU WON US$1,850,000.00, CONTACT OUR DIRECTOR OF FINANCE (MIKE JOHNSON)immediately!

Ref: 435062725
Batch:7050470902/189
Winning no: GB8101/LPRC
Attn Sir/Madam,

We aredelighted to inform you of your prize which wasreleased on 5th of feb 2008, from the Australian International Lottery program, which is fullybased onan electronic selection of winners using their e-mailaddressfrom some sites. Your email address was attached to ticketnumber;47001725 07056490102 and serial number 7741134002. This batchdraws the lucky numbers as follows 5-13-33-37-42 and bonus number17,which consequently won the lottery in the second category.

Youhereby have been approved a lump sum pay of SD$1.850,000.00 (ONEMILLION,EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS ONLY) incash credit file ref: ILP/HW47509/09 from the total cash prize sharedamongst eight lucky winners in this category. All participants wereselected through a computer balloting system drawn from Ninehundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, UnitedStates, Asia,Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of ourinternational promotion program which is conducted annually.

ThisLottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomerate of somemultinational companies as part of their social responsibility to thecitizens in the communities where they have an operationalbase.
Furthermore, your details (e-mail address) fall within ourEuropean representative office in Amsterdam, Holland as indicated inyour play coupon and your prize of USD$1,850,000.00 will be released toyou from this regional branch office in NIGERIA. We hope that with partof your prize, you will participate in our end of year high stakes forUS$1.5 Billion international draw.

Please quote your reference, batchand winning number which can be found on the top left corner of thisnotification as well as your full name,address and telephone number tohelp locate your file easily. For security reasons, we advice allwinners to keep this information confidential from the public until yourclaim is processed and your prize released to you.

This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted takingadvantage of this program by non-participants or unofficial personnel.Note: all winnings MUST be claimed before the 28th of March 2008;otherwise all funds will be returned as Unclaimed and eventually donatedto charity organizations.

We also advise you to complete this information below and send back to us :-
1.Full Name_________________________________
2.Address___________________________________
3.Country_______________________________________
4.City___________________________________
5.Age__________________
6.Occupation________________________
7.Direct/private telephone number_________________________
8.mobile_________________________________

Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. JenniferSmith
Coordinator, Australian Lottery Inc.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam