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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• 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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "fiduciary 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.
  • +447045704450 (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.
  • transfer_unit@hotmail.co.uk

Fraud email example:

From: online claimdepartment <onlineclaimdpt@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:27:27 +0100 (BST)
Subject: LOTTERY WINNER (CONTACT BANK FOR YOUR CLAIM : TRANSFER_UNIT@RCBEINT.CO.UK)


IDENTIFICATION NUMBER:CPEL/OWN/9876.

Dear Winner,

I am in reciept of your mail and i must say that you should count yourself extremely lucky to have emerged as one of our winners in this years lucky dip sweepstakes. As you already know your email address was randomly selected along with others from over 100,000 websites on the internet.Each email address was attached to a ticket number. Your email address was selected along with four others as winner.

All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies that are listed online. Your details has been forwarded to the Bank. You are to send your Full Names,Occupation,Contact Address,Phone Number,Age,Country and also your Bank Account Details to the Bank for the transfer of your winning prize.You are to get in contact with the Bank urgently via email/fax,because we are about to commence on the new edition Lottery.

NOTEYou can call our Office During working hours from 8am to 6pm UK Time, Monday to Saturday).

NOTE:For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claim is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned.

Send the Bank your International Passport/Driving license for your Identification for the Bank to know that you are actually the Winner and we are doing all this to avoid Double Claimming.

You have been verified for payment by the Verification Department.

Your Winning prize will be remitted to you VIA WIRE/SWIFT TRANSFER : ( Bank TO Bank Transfer. )

You are to contact the Bank urgently with the Details given below:

Royal City Bank Of England.

Name: Mr Bill Newman

Email Address: transfer_unit@rcbeint.co.uk
transfer_unit@hotmail.co.uk

Direct Line: +(44)7045704450
Direct Line: +(44)7045714942
Fax: : +(44)7075004825

When Contacting the Bank,send the Bank your Full Bank Account Details where you want your Winning prize to be transfer to in your Country.

NOTE:Keep me posted untill you have claimed your winning prize for record purpose.
Once again Congratulations.

Best Regards,
Mr Williams Woods
Fiduciary Agent Uk Lottery


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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam