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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
• Support our efforts to stop scams!
  
• How to report 419 spam to us
• 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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "million united state dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
  • ",000,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
  • "00,000.00" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
  • "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
• 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: "Mr,David Carew" <info@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: agentdavidcarew01@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 10:13:00 +0700
Subject: **************SPAM************ The Shell National Lottery


Spam detection software, running on the system "ns1.bananinet.com", has
identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message
has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or label
similar future email. If you have any questions, see
the administrator of that system for details.

Content preview: The Shell National Lottery. Customer Service/Claims Department
file XYL26510460037/06 Dear Winner, We are pleased to inform you today 3rd
July 2008 of the result of the winners of the SHELL INTERNATIONAL ONLINE
LOTTERY PROMO PROGRAMME in conjunction with the Chevron Texaco company,held
for this year.You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out $1,000,000.00
(One Million United State Dollars), in cash credited to file XYL26510460037/06.
[...]

Content analysis details: (6.3 points, 5.0 required)

pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
-1.8 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP
2.3 FORGED_YAHOO_RCVD 'From' yahoo.com does not match 'Received' headers
1.3 MISSING_HEADERS Missing To: header
3.2 DEAR_WINNER BODY: DEAR_WINNER
1.5 MILLION_USD BODY: Talks about millions of dollars
0.6 US_DOLLARS_3 BODY: Mentions millions of $ ($NN,NNN,NNN.NN)
-0.2 BAYES_40 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 20 to 40%
[score: 0.3195]
1.0 KAM_LOTTO1 Likely to be a e-Lotto Scam Email
-1.6 AWL AWL: From: address is in the auto white-list

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam