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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!
  
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• 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)
• 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: HENRY WILLIAMS <henwill0005@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: henwill000@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 02:04:53 +0900 (JST)
Subject: YAHOO AWARDS & WINDOWS LIVE AWARD



Yahoo & Windows Live Awards Center Attn:Winner This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of One Million United States Dollars (USD$1,000, 000.00) for the last quarter 2008 prize promotion which is organised by YAHOO AWARDS & WINDOWS LIVE.

YAHOO & WINDOWS LIVE collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail and few from other email providers.

Three people are selected monthly to benefit from this promotion and you are of the Select Winners. Winners shall be paid in accordance with their Settlement Centers. Yahoo Prize Award must be claimed not later that 14 days from date of Draw Notification.

Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited and returned to it source as unclaimed. Stated below are your identification numbers.

BATCH NUMBER: MFI/06/APA-43658
REFERENCE NUMBER: 2007234522
PIN: 1207

You are requested to contact our co-ordinator in united kingdom and send your winning identification numbers to him.

You are advise only to contact the Co-ordinator on the emails below:Email: bongiwea@live.com
Name:Mr.Anderson Bongiwe

You are advise only to contact on the emails above. You are advised to send the following information to our co-ordinator to facilitate the release of your winning prize:

Full names: ........................
Country: ............................
Contact address: ....................
Telephone number: ..................
Fax number: ........................
Marital status: ....................
Occupation: ........................
Sex: ................................
Date of birth: .....................

Yours in Service,
Mr.Henry Williams.



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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam