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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:

• 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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: dominic.brett@live.co.uk
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:32:08 -0700
Subject: YOUR SME\GRANT NOTIFICATION FOR OCTOBER 2008-EC-078419XN


--
European Commission
Enterprise and Industry DG
Communication and Information Unit/R4
BREY 13/ 092
B - 1049 Brussels (Belgium)

Released: October 2008.

We bring to your notice the decision by the board of trustees of The
European Union to choose you as one of the final recipients of a cash
grant/donation for your own personal, educational, and business development
(SME funding).

To promote growth and creating new jobs in the European economy, we are
giving out a yearly donation of £402,000.00 (four hundred and two thousand
pounds) to 10 lucky recipients who have been selected from over 25,000
websites all over the globe, as funding/aid from the European Union,
European Commission, and the United Nations in accordance with enabling acts
of Parliament.

Please contact paying office (England)

Name: Dr. Dominic Brett
E-mail:dominic.brett@live.co.uk <E-mail%3Adominic.brett@live.co.uk>

Remember to quote your identification numbers. Find your identification
numbers below:

BATCH NUMBER: EC-078419XN
UNIQUE NUMBER: SME48153

Note that these numbers fall within your location file.

Thank you and accept my congratulations once again!

Janet Williamson
Information Officer and Coordinator,
Scottish European Resources Network

========
+++++CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE+++++
the information in this e-mail may be confidential and/or privileged. If you
are not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the
intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination
or copying of this e-mail and its attachments, if any, or the information
contained herein is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error,
please immediately notify the sender by return e-mail and delete this e-mail
from your computer system. Thank you.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam