419 scam: Swiss Lotto <info1@swisslotto.ch> YOU HAVE WON £971,450.00!

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
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 office" (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!
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.
- chris.thornton1959@yahoo.com.ph (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Swiss Lotto <info1@swisslotto.ch>
Reply-To: <swiss.lotto2012@yahoo.com.ph>
Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 17:49:12 -0500
Subject: YOU HAVE WON £971,450.00!

Dear Winner,

Your email address has won you £971,450.00 (Nine Hundred and Seventy One Thousand, Four Hundred and Fifty Great British Pounds Only) in the ongoing 2012 SWISS LOTTERY PROMOTION. This promo is a new international annual grant by Swiss Lotto Promotions irrespective of races, cultures, religion or location with no tickets sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy. The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 29,031,643 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet.

The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ). This Lottery is approved by the British and Swiss Gaming Board and also licensed by the The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR). This lottery is the 3rd of its kind and we intend to sensitize the public.

NOTE: To file for your claim, please contact our UK Regional SWISS LOTTO corporate Office (Claims Department) with your information's below to begin the claim processing and remmittance of your prize money to you.

1. Full Names : ...........................
2. Residential Address : ..................
3. Phone Number :Mobile&Home...............
4. Fax Number : ...........................
5. Occupation : .................
6. Sex : ................
7. Age : .............
8. Nationality :...............

**************************************************
Find below your Reference and Batch numbers.
Remember to quote these numbers in your correspondence to our claim's department.
**************************************************
(1) Ref No: SL/037/11/06/CH
(2) Batch No: SL/10/QB/CH
(3) Ticket No: 03-13-31.54-123
(4) Serial No: SLP/82536MANCH/UK
**************************************************

UK Regional SWISS LOTTO Office:
Centrum House, 36 Station Road Egham,
Surrey TW20 9LF England, United Kingdom.
Financial Claims officer: Dr. Chris Thornton
Email: chris.thornton1959@yahoo.com.ph

Congratulations once again!

Yours truly,
Mirabel Vangaal.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam