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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:
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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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• 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.
  • microlotto_2006@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Micro Lotto <micro_lotto1@hotmail.fr>
Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2006 21:34:12 +0100
Subject: You are a winner.


MICROLOTTO INTERNATIONAL
6-8 CHARLTON AVE,
SENTINEL, DAKAR SENEGAL.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Dear Winner,

We are pleased to announce you as one of the lucky winners in the MICRO LOTTO draws recently held. All the winning addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 50,000,000 international emails. Your email address emerged alongside others as a category 2 winner in this year's Annual Eco Lotto Draw.

Consequently, you have therefore been approved for a total pay out of 1,000,000 Euros (one hundred Euro)only. The following particulars are attached to your lotto payment file:

(i) winning numbers: 77-25-33-10-55-11
(ii) email ticket number: ECO754/22/76
(iii) lotto code number: ECO09622SN
(iv) the file Ref number: ECO/05/736207152/SN

Please contact the underlisted claims officer as soon as possible for the immediate release of your
winnings:

Clearance Officer:
Ms. Greg Hopewell.
microlotto_2006@hotmail.com

Micro Lotto promotion is sponsored by the Microsoft Corporation,the Intel Group,Toshiba, Dell computers, Mcintosh and a conglomeration of other international IT companies. Eco lotto internet draw is held once in a year and is so organized to encourage the use of the internet and computers worldwide.

For security purpose and clarity,we advise that you keep your winning informations confidential until your claims have been processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid fraudulent unwarranted abuse of this programe by some particitants. All winning must be claim not later than one month after the date of this notice.

NOTE: YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED IF YOU ARE BELOW 18 YEARS OF AGE.

Once again on behalf of all our staff,

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Sincerely yours,
Hon. Stanley Hadi
(LOTTERY COORDINATOR)

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam