419 Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam (2006-01)

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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

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.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
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.
- claimsagentb0088uk@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <claimsagentb0088uk@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:05:07 +0000
Subject: CONGRATULATION"" YOUR EMAIL ID HAS WON BRITISH CHARITIES LOTTER
PROMOTIONS

BRITISH CHARITIES LOTTERY PROMOTIONS UNITED KINGDOM. We are pleased to inform you of the announcements today of Winners of the MEGA JACKPOT LOTTO WINNING PROGRAMS.

Your company or personal e-mail address, is attached to a Ticket
number 123-765-90, with a serialnumber 42243-98-01 drew the Lucky
Winning Numbers 06-14-17-28-30-41.You have therefore been awarded
the total lump sum pay out of £680, 000.00 credited to File Ref No:
BCLP/ 24-FB-4234243/007UK. You must contact the claims department by e-mail; Name: Mr. Steven HowardE-mail: claimsagentb0088uk@yahoo.co.uk Congratulations once again from all our staff for being a part of
ourPromotions program. Mrs.Elizabeth Grayson Online co-ordinator
The society lotteries are managed by Sisson Marketing InternationalLimited,certified by the Gambling Commission ELM Certification 180/3/2.© Charities Lottery 2008British Lottery 2008 Winner

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam