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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• 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
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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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "atm payment department" (this phrase is often used in the ATM card payment scam)
  • "activation fee" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. Never ever send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally. )
  • "huge amount of money" (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)
  • "hundred thousand us 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)
  • "barr." (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
  • "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
• This email message is a "New Partner from Paraguay" scam.
• 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.
  • +22993742893 (Benin, probably a 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.
  • atm_payment_dept02@yahoo.fr (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: office file <office_file234@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: atm_payment_dept02@yahoo.fr
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:09:46 +0100
Subject: CONTACT ATM PAYMENT OFFICE FOR YOUR $6.5MILLION USD




This is to inform you about my success in transfering your money into an
ATM master card to curtail the risk of carrying huge amount of money
arround.We are the people that coded this amount of money in the card and
we are going to tell you how to make use of it.Presently i'm out of the
coutry for investing my own part of the total money .

Meanwhile,i didn't forget your past efforts and attempts to assist me in
moving the cash despite that both of us could not make it.Now contact ATM
PAYMENT DEPARTMENT and their email address is(atm_payment_dept02@yahoo.fr=
)
ask them to send you the sum of six million five hundred thousand us
dollars ( $6.500.000.00 in an ATM MASTER CARD which i kept for your
compensation for all the past efforts and attempts to assist me in this
matter. I appreciated your efforts at that time very much,So feel free an=
d
get in touched with the ATM PAYMENT DEPARTMENT and instruct them on where
to send your total share of the money to you.

Please do let me know
immediately you receive it so that we can share the
joy together after all the sufferness at that time. In the moment, i am
very busy here investing with my new partner.Remember that you are going =
to
pay a reactivation fee of $98.00 only and it is for the reactivation of
your card against it's expiry before the delivery is made.The reason for
the reactivation fee is that the account has been there for a long time
while the government was doing serious investigations on the right owner =
of
the money before this conclusion was made.

Here are the informations you have to forward to the bank:=20

1. YOUR FULL NAMES:___________________
2. Postal ADDRESS:____________________
3. PHONE NUMBER:______________________
4. CELL NUMBERS:______________________
5. EMAIL ADDRESS:_____________________
6. SEX:_______________________________
7. AGE:_______________________________
8. OCCUPATION:________________________=20
9. NATIONALITY:_______________________

CONTACT Peter Udeh:=20
Director, ATM Foreign
Operation Deptment.
Apex Bank Cotonou, Benin Republic.
Phone: + 229 937-428-93
Fax: + 229 237 876 01
Email :( atm_payment_dept02@yahoo.fr )=20

Finally, I have forwarded instructions to the DEPARTMENT to send the
Confirmable ATM MASTER CARD to you, so feel free to get in touch with the
DEPARTMENTand they will send the CARD to you without any delay.

DO FAST AND CONTACT THEM IMMEDIATELY OK?

Best Regards,
BARR. umaru

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam