419 scam: "©FreeLotto"<headoffice@freelotto.com> +0700 Weekly

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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 office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million pounds" (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)
- ",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.
- +447031911778 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: "©FreeLotto" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <freelotoclaim@outlook.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:33:23 -0500
Subject: +0700 Weekly

THE FREELOTTO COMPANY
UK HEAD OFFICE
SUITE 43-50, LION TOWERS
CENTRAL LONDON
ENGLAND
www.freelotto.com

Dear Winner,

We are please to announce you as one of the 10 lucky winners in the FreeLotto draw held yesterday the 14th of January 2013. All 10 winning addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 50,000,000 international emails. Your email address emerged alongside 9 others as category 2 winners in this year's Annual FreeLotto Draw.

Consequently, you have therefore been approved for a total pay out of £1,000,000.00 pounds (one million pounds) only. The following particulars are attached to your lotto payment order:

(i) Winning numbers: 37-13-43-85-67-11
(ii) Email ticket number: FL754/22/76
(iii) Lotto code number: FL09622UK
(iv) The file Ref number: FL/04/736207152/UK

Please contact the under listed claims officer via email (freelotoclaim@outlook.com) as soon as possible for the immediate release of your winnings:

Dr. Sean Hagel
Chief financial Director
The Freelotto Company
TEL: +44 7031 911 778
Email:freelotoclaim@outlook.com

N.B: Steps to claim your prize

1. Winners must immediately pay a non-deductible amount of £ 595.00 pounds only as fee before claiming their prize for the processing and handling of award. Note that your prize have been insured to the real value of £1,000 000.00 pounds hence no deduction can be done.

2. Please quote your Reference number in all correspondence with the claims officer.

3. Winners should send to claim officer account detail or address where they want their prize paid or sent.

4. Winners must send their names, address, and telephone number and means of identification (international passport or drivers’ license) to claim officer to process immediate payment of their prize.

Winners are advice to keep this award confidential until prize are claimed to avert incidence of impersonation by unscrupulous elements.

Once again on behalf of all our staff,

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Sincerely,

Mrs Seline Mathews

Promotions Manager

The FreeLotto Company

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The FreeLotto Awards is proudly sponsored by a conglomerate of international IT companies. The freelotto Internet draw is held once in a year and is so organized to encourage the use of the Internet and computers worldwide. We are proud to say that over 200 Million Euros are won annually in more than 150 countries worldwide.

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We also encourage you to visit our website at www.freelotto.com and take your chance to play and become part of our daily winners. Millions are won on a daily basis on one of the world’s most famous free lotto service.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam