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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:
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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.

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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:
  • "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)
  • "contact me immediately" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
• This email message is a next of kin 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.
  • +447024063779 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
• 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.
  • info_eli10@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: eli eli <elieli90@msn.com>
Reply-To: <barr_machin_eli@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:56:59 +0000
Subject: Greetings



N0; 20 Minerva Street,Off Cranmer Road, London SW9
6NZ
Telephone line: +44 702 406 3779
Email; info_eli10@yahoo.co.uk

Greetings,

Before I start, I must firstly, apologize for this unsolicited proposal to you. I am aware that this is certainly an unconventional approach to starting a relationship, but as time goes on you will realize the need for my action.

My name is Eli Machin, Solicitor to Gerald Welsh, who died with his wife in an air crash on the 31st October 1999 in an Egyptian airline flight990.

Before the death of Gerald Welsh, he maintained a fixed deposit account with a Financial services Company here in Europe
(details of which I will disclose to you later).Since his death, none of his relatives have come to make claims for this money as his beneficiary, and the bank cannot release the fund from his account unless someone applies for claims, as beneficiary to the deceased as indicated in the bank guidelines.

The bank has made several futile efforts to contact his relatives. Based on this discovery, I now seek your permission to have you stand in as a next of kin to the deceased, as all documentations will be carefully worked out by me for the release of these funds all amounting to the tune of(USD32, 000,000.00) to any nominated account of your choice. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you and me from any breach of the law. If you are interested in my proposal, please contact me immediately . at my privet Email Address;{ info_eli10@yahoo.co.uk}OR you can call my direct Telephone line:+44 702 406 3779.

Regards,
Eli Machin

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam