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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:
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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.
• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "yahoo/msn lottery inc" (no such lottery exists)
  • "yahoo/msn lottery" (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "greater london" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "hundred thousand great british pounds" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• 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 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.
  • eventmanager_12@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "YAHOO MSN AWARD TEAM" <YAHOOMSN@hamdard.net.pk>
Reply-To: eventmanager_12@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 09:25:46 +0500
Subject:



Yahoo/Msn Lottery Incorporation
Baley House, Har Road Sutton,
Greater London SM1 4te
United Kingdom .

Dear Winner,

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Five Hundred
Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling's for this month Lottery
promotion which was organized by YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC & WINDOWS LIVE.
YAHOO/MSN & MICROSOFT WINDOWS collects all the email addresses of the
people that are active online among the millions that subscribed to
Yahoo and Hotmail we only select five people every Month as our winners
through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we
congratulate you for being one of the people selected.

You are to contact the events manager.
These are your identification numbers:
Batch number.....................YM 09102XM
Reff number.......................YM 35447XM
Winning number...................DTYFM0988
However you will have to fill and submit this form to the events
manager.
1. Full name..............
2. Contact Address........
3. Age....................
4. Telephone Number.......
5. Sex....................
6. Occupation:............
7. State..................
8. Country................
9. Your Reference and Batch number at the top of this mail.
(CONTACT EVENTS MANAGER)
Name:Mr Robert Henry
E-mail: eventmanager_12@yahoo.com.hk
****************************************************************

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam