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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:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claims agent" (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 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.
  • +447040115785 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
  • +448701321454 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: "EUROPEAN LOTTERY DEPARTMENT PROMOTION" <bridgethillford06@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: craigcurtis@walla.com
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 01:31:26 -0800
Subject: RE: YOUR WINNING NOTIFICATION!!!

UK NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS
P O Box 1010 Liverpool,
L70 1NL UNITED KINGDOM

FROM: EUROPEAN LOTTERY DEPARTMENT PROMOTION.
WINNING NOTICE FOR CATEGORY "A" WINNER

BONUS LOTTERY PROMOTION PRIZE AWARDS WINNING NOTIFICATION.

Dear Lucky Winner,

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual final draws of EUROPEAN LOTTERY DEPARTMENT PROMOTION in conjunction with UK NATIONAL LOTTERY international Lottery programs. The online cyber lotto draws was conducted from an exclusive list of 21,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet, no tickets were sold. After this automated computer ballot, your e-mail address emerged as one of two winners in the category "A" with the following winning information:

REF No: UK/9420X2/68
BATCH No: 200074/05/ZY369
TICKET No: 20511465463-7644
SERIAL No: S/N-00168
LUCKY No: 887-13-865-37-10-83

You as well as the other winner are therefore to receive a cash prize of £3,000,000 Pounds (Three million pounds sterling) each from the total payout. Your prize award has been insured with your e-mail address and will be transferred to you upon meeting our requirements, statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory report. To begin the claims processing of your prize winnings you are advised to contact our licensed and accredited claims agent for category "A" winners with the information below:

To file for your claim, please contact the processing agent;

MR. Craig T. Curtis
TEL: +44 7040115785
FAX: +44 8701321454
Email: craigcurtis@walla.com

Remember to quote your reference information in all correspondence. You are to keep all lotto information away from the general public especially your reference and ticket numbers. (This is important as a case of double claims will not be entertained). Anybody under the age of 17 and members of the affiliate agencies are automatically not allowed to participate in this program.

Please note; You are hereby advice to send the asign fudiciray Agent details below for Processing of your Claims;

(1.) FULL NAME
(2.) FULL ADDRESS
(3).NATIONALITY.
(4) DATE OF BIRTH
(5) OCCUPATION
(6 )WINNING EMAIL
(7 )TELEPHONE NUMBER
(8) DATE OF WINNING NOTIFICATION
(9) SEX
(10) TOTAL AMOUNT WON
(11) MARITAL STATUS

Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.

Yours Sincerely,

Miss Bridget Hillford.
FOR EUROPEAN LOTTERY DEPARTMENT PROMOTION, CUSTOMER SERVICE.

NOTE: You are to contact the processing agent officer immediately on this EMAIL ADDRESS: craigcurtis@walla.com

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam