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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:

• 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: "BRITISH TOBACCO PROMOTIONS" <info@infotech.com>
Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 04:41:02 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: ARE YOU AWARE ? ? ?


Spam detection software, running on the system "fructidor.freesurf.fr", h=
as
identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message
has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or label
similar future email. If you have any questions, see
the administrator of that system for details.

Content preview: BRITISH TOBACCO MEGA JACKPOT PROMOTION UNITED KINGDOM 4=
06
Bury New Rd., Whitefield, Manchester M457SXU.K. BATCH NUMBER:MFI/07/APA=
-43658
REFERENCE NUMBER: 2008234522 AWARD WINNING NO: 4 BRITISH TOBACCO INFOR=
MATION
TECHNOLOGY PROMOTIONS [...]=20

Content analysis details: (4.6 points, 4.1 required)

pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- ---------------------------------------------=
-----
2.1 SUBJ_ALL_CAPS Subject is all capitals
1.5 MILLION_USD BODY: Talks about millions of dollars
1.3 NA_DOLLARS BODY: Talks about a million North American do=
llars
-0.7 BAYES_20 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 5 to 20%
[score: 0.0960]
1.0 KAM_LOTTO1 Likely to be a e-Lotto Scam Email
1.2 ADVANCE_FEE_2 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419=
)
-1.8 AWL AWL: From: address is in the auto white-list

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam