419 Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam (2006-01)

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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

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.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

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 uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- ",000,000" (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)
- "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)
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!
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.
- +447045713815 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: Euro Millions Prize <awardprize0101@btinternet.com>
Reply-To: Euro Millions Prize <claims24hrs@live.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 11:45:55 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: =?utf-8?B?Q29uZ3JhdHVsYXRpb25zIG9uY2UgbW9yZSEgISEgISEhICEhISEhKFlvdXIg?=
=?utf-8?B?RS1NYWlsIEFkZHJlc3MgV29uIOKCrDYwMCwwMDA6MDA=?=

Euro Millions Lottery
Head Office: # 2 Spring Gardens ,
Trafalgar Square, London ,
United Kingdom SW1A 2TS

Dear Lucky Winner,

We are pleased to announce you as one of the 10 lucky winners in our EURO MILLION LOTTERY DRAW held on March 2010.Your email address emerged along side nine others in the category of winners in this year's Annual Free Lottery Draw. Generally, email address were picked, the draws are processed by the computer through a special program that is special designed for this award, the program is also known as Random Access Program (RAP) This software picks email addresses from the internet and through a random process, picks the winners through their email address.

All 10 winning email addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 50,000,000 international emails. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of â‚¬600,000.00 (Six Hundred Thousand Euros).NO TICKETS WERE SOLD

The following particulars are attached to your lotto payment order:

i) Your =E-mail address attached to Serial Number 22221415366-609 with Lucky Star Numbers 03 44 04, Winning Number 04 05 23 25 28 which =consequently won in the 10th category, you have therefore been approved for a = lump sum pay out of 600,000.00 Euros. (Six Hundred Thousand Euros Only).

To file your claims of 600,000.00 (Six Hundred Thousand Euros),you have to fill the below information completely and submit it to our fiduciary claims agent for documentation and processing of your lottery winning certificate:

Your Name In Full......
Your Nationality...
Your Present Address......
Your Sex Gender/Age......
Your Occupation......
Your Mobile Phone Number......

Lottery Claims Agent: Dr. Richard Kerry
E-mail: claimss24hrs@live.co.uk
Phone Number: +447045713815

On behalf of the Board of Trustees of Euro Millions Association (E.M.A) Draw Promotion, kindly accept our warmest congratulations.

Sincerely,
Rev. Martin Wills
Promotions Manager.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam