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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• 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 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.
  • +447011120520 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
  • +448701342473 (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.
  • macdonaldpayoffice@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: macdonaldwinnings2006@zipmail.com.br
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:09:10 +0700
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Hello=2C=20You=20have=20won=2E?=

BRITISH LOTTERY HEADQUATERS:
CUSTOMER SERVICE,
LIVERPOOL,
LONDON

Ref: BNA/941OYI/04
Batch:05/06/MA34

WINNING NOTIFICATION
We happily announce to you the draw of the National Lottery Promo International
program, held on the 22nd of July, 2006. Your email address was attached
to ticket number: 55550064638 with serial number: 67345/05 drew the lucky
numbers 12-8-9-22-23-5, which subsequently won you the lottery in the second
category. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £1,000,000.00
(One Million Great British Pounds) in cash credited to file PL/233376899/04.
This is from a total cash prize of Sixty Million Great British Pounds (£60,000,000.00),

shared among the thirty (60) lucky winners in this category. In view of
this, your money would be released to you by our accredited bank in the
United Kingdom. Our agent in the United Kingdom will immediately commence
the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as they are
contacted. All participants were selected randomly from world wide Website
through computer ballot system extracted from over 200,000,000 companies
and individual's
email addresses. This promotion takes place annually. For security reasons,
you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your
claims is processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our
precautionary measure to avoid dual claims and unwarranted abuse of this
program by unscrupulous elements.

To file your claims, please contact our agent:

Name: Vivian Howard
Tel: +44 701 112 0520
Fax: +44 870 134 2473
Email: macdonaldpayoffice@yahoo.co.uk

to avoid unnecessary delay and complications, Please quote your reference/batch
numbers in any correspondences with us or our designated agent. Congratulations
once more from all members of staffs, management team and directors of this
program.

Yours faithfully,

Bernard Micheal.
EURO-ASIAN ZONAL COORDINATOR.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam