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:
- "fiduciary 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)
- "we advice you" (this email uses bad English)
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.
- +447045730397 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
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.
- euroma2013@yahoo.co.jp (Yahoo, Japan; can be used from anywhere worldwide)

Fraud email example:

From: "EURO MILLION AWARD" <MSFT122@GMAIL.COM> (may be fake)
Reply-To: euroma2013@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2013 02:02:35 -0500
Subject: Winning Notification From Euro-Millions.com--{REPLY FOR YOUR CLAIM
TODAY}

Euro-Millions.com
The Lottery Company Ltd.
The Acorns
Oakwood Park Business Centre
Fountains Road
Bishop Thornton
Harrogate
HG3 3BF

Congratulations,

The Board of Directors, members of staff of the Euro-millions, wishes to
congratulate you on your successful emerged as one of the 1st STAR PRIZE
WINNER in this year Euro-millions E-mail International lottery winners
Promotion held this month 2013 in Berkshire. Euro Millions is a European
lottery that takes place twice a week and it is affiliated with Camelot UK
Lotteries Limited.
Confirmation of e-ticket NO: 9325406020

This lucky draw came first in the 2nd Category of the program . You will
receive the sum of 10,000,000.00 GBP.{Ten Million Great British Pounds}
from our authorized bank. Because of some mix-up with prizes, including
the time limitation placed on the payment of your prize; we advice that
you keep all information about this prize confidential until your
prize/funds have been paid to you by our bank.
You must adhere to this instruction strictly, to avoid any delay with the
release of your prize to you in person. This program has been abused
severely in the past, so we are doing our best to eliminate further
occurrence of false claims. This program was conducted under the watchful
eyes of 8000 systems spectators. Your e-mail address was selected and came
out first by an e-ballot drawn from 60000 e-mail addresses (personal and
corporate e-mail addresses).
This program is funded by the Camelot UK Lotteries Limited. Please note
that your winning prize is valid for only 180 working days. You are to
forward the following information/details to our London on-line
coordinator for the processing of your claim/payment.

Online Coordinator: Mr. Frank Freeman
Phone: +447045730397
E -mail : euroma2013@yahoo.co.jp

Kindly fill the blank spaces and send them to the official fiduciary agent
for the processing of your claim/payment

1) Your full name.
2) Phone, fax and mobile#.
3) Residential address:.
4) Company name, Office position and Company address.
5) Profession, Age and marital Status.
6) Attached copy of Working ID or Int'l passport/driver's license..

Please take note of your winning details as stated below:

1. E-ticket Number: 9325406020
2. Prize Lucky Number: 5003214870
3. Reference Number: EURM/56B/672GH/L
4. Batch Number: 4583JL/WIN

Congratulations.
Reverend Mike Charles
Promotion Coordinator.

*******************
Note: In accordance to the Lottery policy and regulations, this message is
dispatched directly to the recipient only. If you are not the rightful
owner of this email address or feel that you have received this message by
error, we advice you destroy this copy as you are not authorized to read,
print, retain or disseminate any part of it for any reason

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam