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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
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• 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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
• 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: "Microsoft"<mircosolft20092009@yahoo.com.hk>
Reply-To: <italia@adminciti.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 20:36:27 +0200
Subject: Microsoft

Microsoft Department of Promotion
Microsoft Italy s.p.a.
Dpt 2444 .
via del casale vecchio 2 Roma,
Italy.

Attention: Lucky Winner,

A happy new year to you, as we congratulate you, being one of the lucky winners of the result of the Annual Microsoft Email Award held on the 29th of June 2009 in Italy . Your email address emerged as one of the 10 lucky winners selected electronically by our Electronic lotto Wheel. The total sum of ?1.500,000 (One Million five hundred thousand euro) has been accredited to your email address file number.
Winners were selected randomly from our list of millions of email addresses around Europe, Asia, some parts of South America to promote computer literacy worldwide as well as to advertise our software and computer products. This promotion was sponsored by a conglomerate of software and computer promotion companies like Intel Group, Toshiba, Dell Computers Apple, and other International software and computers manufacturing Companies.
Your email address number in our file was chosen in the European lottery Coupon network whereby your number came up as one of the lucky winners of our prize money, hence, your price money will be remitted to your choice account, in your country through CITIBANK European Branch.
Your winning details are as follows:

Batch No: ITR154701

Email File No:IT0012

Coupon No: ITR00630

Amount Won: ?1.500,000 (One Million Five Hundred Thousand Euro)
Contact CITIBANK Italia immediately for verification, processing and transferring of your price money to you in your country. Remember to forward them your winning details and your contact information for confirmation.

Full Name :

Tel Number:

Age:

Occupation : Address

Contact Citibank with the below contact info:
Contact Info:
Foreign Remittance Department
Citibank Italia s.p.a
Contact person
Gucciadi Munzi
FOR
Simone Belucci
C/Aroporto-Luz No111 Roma Italy
TEL: + 39-328-654-7912
Fax + 39-024-074-6251
Email: italia@adminciti.com
Email: italia@adminciti.com
On behalf of our CEO Mr. Bill Gates, all the 2009 promotion sponsors, we congratulate you on your winning..
Mrs. Manzanita Faro Prof. Tom Southgate
(Publicity Secretary) (On-line Coordinator)

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam