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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• 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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "deadline" (they are rushing you so you don't have time to think properly)
  • "vat (5%)" (VAT rate in the UK is 17.5%, check the math)
• 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.
  • +447045732967 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: The National Lottery <infoonlinewinningscouk@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: customer.allstatefinancedept@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2007 15:04:00 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: C62789 Delivery Option


Phone: +44 70457 32967

DELIVERY CODE: C62789

ATTENTION: Sheil Nirmalya,

This is to inform you that you have been officially cleared for payment by the Verifications Dept. at the headquarters of the The National Lottery.

You can now begin the final step of the claims process, which is the transferring of your cash prize to you. With regards to this, there are four (4) options open to you, you are required to select the most convenient in any of the four (4) options.

The options, together with their associated conditions are presented below:

(EXPRESS SAME DAY DELIVERY)

Mailing £40.00 00.00 Insurance £450.00 00.00 Vat (5%) £350.00 00.00 TOTAL £840.00 1,669.72 USD

(48 HOURS DELIVERY)

Mailing £30.00 00.00 Insurance £250.00 00.00 Vat (5%) £270.95 00.00 TOTAL £550.95 1,095.04 USD


(72 HOURS DELIVERY)



Mailing £20.00 00.00 Insurance £150.00 00.00 Vat (5%) £150.00 00.00 TOTAL £320.00 635.978 USD



(INTERNATIONAL BANK TRANSFER CHARGES)


The said amount claim will be wired to your bank account via swift bank transfer.Condition: The cost of COT (commission of transfer) being charged by our transferring bank is £2,000.00 GBP = 3,975.88 USD of the cash being transferred will be paid by you.

Note: That your prize is protected by a hardcover insurance policy which makes it impossible to deduct any amount from the money before it has been remitted to you. This means that the above charges cannot be deducted from the prize and hence must be provided by you first before your prize is transferred to you.

Please respond to this email by making a selection from the Four (4) options above.

Also attach a scanned copy of either your driver's licence, international passport (photo page) or any other legally identifying document.Also be reminded that the deadline for the claiming of winnings is exactly two weeks after the receipt of this email.

After this period, your cash prize will be deemed to have been forfeited by you and will be reused in the drawings of the next edition of the lottery.

Good luck and Congratulations once again. Please send your response within the next 24hrs to this same email address.

Your Faithfully

Mr Rio Jones
Lottery Agent.


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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam