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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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "hundred thousand 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)
  • ",500,000" (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)
• 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 mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
  • +34672114296 (Spain, prepaid mobile phone)
• 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.
  • donnewport12@googlemail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: (sent from abused email account)
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 05:48:00 -0800
Subject: Xmas Promotion Mail!


*Call For Confirmation (Award Notice)
WEBEX CISCO INTERNATIONAL
PROMOTION AWARD
DEPT.

Attn: Lucky Winner,

We are pleased to inform you that one of the best things that can happen to
any Internet user is to be rewarded for
spending money and time on the Internet. You may not have known that over
one hundred billion people daily surf the
Internet on regular basis for one reason or other. These Internet users
including yourself, pay access fees to various
Internet Service Providers (ISP) all over the word who in turn remit surplus
funds to the numerous World Wide Internet
Technology Companies (WWITC) for the development and advancement of Global
Information Technology.

So much money is generated from people like you all over the World for using
the Information Superhighway (the
Internet) without your being aware the enormous sum that go to the stake
holders (WWITC). Without your patronage,
this would not have been possible. After we conducted a research on the
issue, we concluded that Internet users should
be compensated. As a result, we embarked on a worldwide lottery promotion
with a sophisticated automated database
to randomly select E-mail accounts that frequently surf the Internet.
Consequent upon this, your E-mail address was
picked for Category "A" Winners.

After the automated computer ballot, your E-mail address emerged as a winner
in the category "A" with the following
numbers attached
Ref Number: EH 9590 OG 0612,
Batch Number: 563881545-ES/2008

You and other category A winners are therefore to receive a cash prize of
$2,500,000.00 (Two Million Five Hundred
Thousand United States Dollars) from the total payout of One Billion US
Dollars earmarked in the lottery for category A
winners. Your prize award has been insured with your E-mail address, which
qualified you for the lottery and will be
transferred to you upon meeting our requirements, statutory obligations,
verifications, validations and satisfactory proof
of E-mail
address ownership.

To file in for the processing of your winning cash prize, you are advised to
contact our certified
and accredited claims agent for category "A" winners with the information
below:

CLAIMS AGENT.
Name: Harry Smith
Email: donnewport12@googlemail.com
Tel: +34-672-114-296

You are advised to provide him with the following information:

First name:
Last Name:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:
Country Presently Located:
Ref Number:
Batch Number:

NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later than 14 days, thereafter
unclaimed funds would be forfeited after a trio
repeated forwarding of this message to you without your response. Remember
to quote your reference information in all
correspondence.

You are to keep all lotto information confidential, especially your
reference numbers and the password of your E-mail
address. Since we do not know you, if an impostor hacks your E-mail account
ID and claims your money without our
knowledge, we shall not be liable. Double claims willnot be entertained so
be careful. Furthermore, should there be any
change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.

Congratulations!!! And thank you for being a user of the World Wide Web.
Thanks,
Martina Carlos,
Lottery Co-ordinator!!*

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam