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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
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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:

• 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.
  • +447024065736 (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.
  • surflottery_uk@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Gregory Duff" <gregory_duff@mailqatar.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:45:29 +0300
Subject: (CONGRATULATIONS) You Are The Lucky Winner Of The World Wide Internet Technology Corporation (WWITC) Prize


Dear Internet User,

I am pleased to inform you that one of the best things that can happen
to any Internet user is to be rewarded for spending money and time
on the Internet. You may not have known that over one hundred billion
people daily surf the Internet on a regular basis for one reason or
other.These Internet users including yourself, pay access fees to
various Internet Service Providers(ISP) all over the word who in turn
remit surplus funds to the numerous World Wide Internet Technology
Companies(WWITC) for the development and advancement of Global
Information Technology.

So much money is generated from people like you all over the World for
using the Information Superhighway (the Internet) without your
being aware the enormous sum that go to the stake holders (WWITC).
Without your patronage, this would not have been possible.

Consequent upon this, your E-mail address was picked for Category "B"
Winners.After the automated computer ballot, your E-mail address
emerged as a winner in the category "B" with the following numbers
attached Ref:Number: EL-9318 ,Batch Number: EL-9501 , Ticket number
:EL-01135 and Serial number: EL-122692

You and other category "B" winners are therefore to receive a cash
prize of Three Million Eight Hundred And Fifty Thousand United States
Dollars ($3,850,000.00) respectively from the total payout of One
Billion US Dollars earmarked in the lottery for category "B" winners.


Your prize award has been insured with your E-mail address, which
qualified youfor the lottery and will be transferred to you upon
meeting our requirements,statutory obligations, verifications, validations nd
satisfactory proof of E-mail address ownership.

To file in for the processing of your money, you are advised to contact
our certified lottery director for category "B" winners with the
information below:

Contact Person:
Mr: Anthony Hobson
Lottery Director
Surf Lottery Organization
80 Boxton Road,
London, e151qx
England, United Kingdom.
Tel:+44-702-4065-736
Fax:+44-798-3118-687
www.surf-lottery.co.uk
Email:surflottery_uk@yahoo.co.uk

You will provide him with the following information:
First name,Last Name,Telephone/Fax number,Nationality,Age,Occupation:

NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later than 21 days,
thereafter unclaimed funds would be forfeited after a trio repeated
forwarding of this message to you without your response. Remember to
quote yourreference information in all correspondence. (Ref Number: EL-
9318 ,Batch Number: EL-9501 , Ticket number :EL-01135 and Serial
number: EL-122692),

You are to keep all lotto information confidential, especially your
reference numbers and the password of your E-mail address. Since we do
not know you, if an impostor hacks your E-mail account ID and claims
your money without our knowledge, we shall not be liable. Double claims
will not be entertained so be careful.

Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agent
as soon as possible.

Congratulations !

Thank you for being a user of the World Wide Web.

Yours Faithfully,
Mr.Gregory Duff
Lottory Co-ordinator
Surf Lottery Uk.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam