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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.

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:
  • "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• 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: YAHOO LOTTERY <graceadamss01007@msn.com>
Reply-To: <grace_adamms011@yahoo.cn>
Date: Sat, 23 May 2009 11:17:06 +0000
Subject: Yahoo Congratulate You For Being Their Lucky Winner In May 2009











You won £300 000! Yahoo! Mail congratulates you!



YAHOO INTERNET LOTTERY
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU WON £300 000!





Yahoo! Mail gives members random cash prizes. Today, your account is randomly selected as the one of 5 top winners accounts who will get cash prizes from us.We are happy to inform you that you have won a prize money of (Three Hundred Thousand Great Britian Pounds sterling (300,000) for the month of May 2009. Lottery win promotion which is organized by yahoo messenger .com every month.

YAHOO, collects all the mail ID of the people that are online on internet, among the millions that subscribe to Online we only select five people every month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying,we are congratulating you for been one of the people selected.All participant 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 promotions program which is conducted annually.

This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomorate of some multinational companies as part of their social responsibility to the citizens in the commmunities where they have operational base.

Further more your details(e-mail address) falls within our British representative office in United Kingdom , as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of £300,000 will be released to you from this regional branch office in UK. We hope 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

These are your identification numbers..........

Batch number.......................Lwh 09445
Lotto number........................Lwh09446
Winning number...................Lwh09447


To begin your claims, kindly contact our fiduciary agent company at this email
address: grace_adams01@yahoo.cn

You are required to forward her with the following details:
Her name is Grace Adams

1.FULL NAME
2.COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
3.PRESENT ADDRESS
4.SEX
5.DATE OF BIRTH
6.AGE
7.OCCUPATION
8.TELEPHONE NUMBER
9.FAX NUMBER(IF ANY)
10.MARITAL STATUS
11.WINNING NUMBER,BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER.
12 THE MONTH YOU WON........................................................

As soon as you contact her,she will advise you on what to do in order to get your prize money.Congratulations once more!!

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-participant or unofficial personnel.

Yours Sincerely,



SMITH WILLIAMS

LOTTO CO-ORDINATOR.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam