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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

• 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.
  • mpaclaimsagent@yahoo.com.hk

Fraud email example:

From: "TURKISH NATIONAL LOTTERY" <infomillipiyango@hamdard.net.pk>
Reply-To: mpaclaimsagent@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 14:26:07 +0500
Subject: FROM THE DESK OF TURKISH NATIONAL LOTTERY(YOU ARE A WINNER)



TURKISH NATIONAL LOTTERY (MILLI PIYANGO)
Ziyabey Caddesi 22 Sokak 1
TR-06520 Balgat-Ankara. Turkey.
http://www.millipiyango.gov.tr/

The Turkish National Lottery which is locally known as the Milli
Piyango is happy to announce to you that the owner of this present
email address has emerge as one of the newly introduced Digital Lottery
Programme which involves the use of email addresses. Milli Piyango is
held every 9th, 19th, and 29th of every month. Your e-mail address won
you the lottery in the 2nd category and in this category 17 email
address came out as winners and you are one of them.

You have been approved to claim a total sum of USD 785,280.00 (Seven
Hundred And Eighty Five Thousand Two Hundred And Eighty U.S. Dollars).
This is from a total cash prize of USD 13,349,760.00(Thirteen Million,
Three Hundred And Fourty Nine Thousand Seven Hundred And Sixty U.S.
Dollars) shared amongst the (17) lucky winners in this category.

All participants for this programs are selected randomly from over
millions of email addresses of users submitted by their service
Provider e.g. YAHOO, MSN, AOL e.t.c. So dont be surprised on how we got
your email address. It was submitted by your service provider..

Prize Claim Inquiries:
Please Contact our cutomer service center and provide them with your
full name and email address so that they can provide you with more
informations about how to claim your won prize: Email:
mpaclaimsagent@yahoo.com.hk

On behalf of me and the staff, we say Congratulations and thank you for
being part of an email address user.

Sincerely,
Mr. Ihya Bal Ak
Chairman of the Board and General Director
MILLI PIYANGO.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam