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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 states 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)
  • "ecowas " (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
• 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: "Dr. Anthony Moore" <ecowas_.zone1@live.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:03:57 +0000
Subject: *****SPAM***** ecowas donation 2008


Spam detection software, running on the system "mail.tugab.bg", 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: -- Dear Winner, This is to inform you that you have won a
prize money of One Million United States Dollars, ($1,000,000.00) for this
year 2008 Lottery promotion which is organized by ECOWAS DONATIONS 2008.
ECOWAS DONATIONS 2008, collects all the email addresses of the people that
are active online, among the millions that subscribed to the Internet.we
only select five people every Year as our winners through electronic balloting
System without the winner applying,we congratulate you for being one of the
people selected. [...]

Content analysis details: (9.0 points, 5.0 required)

pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
-1.8 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP
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)
0.0 BAYES_50 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 40 to 60%
[score: 0.5002]
2.9 KAM_LOTTO1 Likely to be a e-Lotto Scam Email
1.2 ADVANCE_FEE_2 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam