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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "international lottery programme" (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "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 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.
  • macarioanton@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: AUSTRALIAN LOTTERY INC <auslott11prog2009@msn.com>
Reply-To: <macarioanton@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:23:33 +0000
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!YOUR EMAIL HAS WON($400,000USD)AUSTRALIA LOTTERY








DATE: 17/01/2009
REFERENCE NO: 675161724
BATCH NO: 7050470902/126
WINNING NO: GB8102/LPRC

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Dear lucky winner!!

We
are delighted to inform you of your prize which was released on the 1st
of January 2009, from the Australian International Lottery programme,
which is fully based on an electronic selection of winners using their
e-mail addresses from some sites. Your email address was attached to
ticket number; 47001725 07056490108 and serial number 7741134002. This
batch draws the lucky numbers as follows 5-13-33-37-42 and bonus number
17, which consequently won the lottery in the second category. You
hereby have been approved a lump sum pay of USD$400,000.00 (FOUR
HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) in cash credit file ref: ILP/HW 47509/09 from
the total cash prize shared amongst eight lucky winners in this
category. All participants were selected through a computer balloting
system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada ,
Australia , United States , Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and
Oceania as part of our international promotion program which is
conducted annually. This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a
conglomerate of some multinational companies as part of their social
responsibility to the citizens in the communities where they have an
operational base. Furthermore, your details (e-mail address) falls
within our European representative office in Amsterdam , Holland and
London as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of US$400,000.00
will be released to you from this regional branch office in LONDON . We
hope that with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of
year high stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw. HOW TO CLAIM
YOUR PRIZE: Simply contact our fiducial agent, MRS MACARIO ANTON at macarioanton@hotmail.com
to file for your claim....Please quote your reference number, batch
number and winning number which can be found on the top left corner of
this notification as well as your full name, address and telephone
number to help locate your file easily. For security reasons, we advice
all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until
your claim is processed and your prize released to you. This is part of
our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking
advantage of this programme by non-participants or unofficial
personnel. Note, all winnings MUST be claimed by the 30th of January
2009; otherwise all funds will be returned as Unclaimed and eventually
donated to charity organizations.

PLEASE CONTACT AGENT MRS MACARIO ANTON, so that she will tell you on how you will receive your winning prize.
Name: MRS MACARIO ANTON
Email:macarioanton@hotmail.com

Any winner below the age of 18years is automatically disqualified!!
Congratulations once again on your winning!!!

Best Regards,
Melvin Brown[DR]
( co-ordinator)

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam