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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

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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:

• 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.
  • laura4jill@yahoo.co.uk

Fraud email example:

From: "laura jill" <laurajill50@msn.com>
Reply-To: laurajill01@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:37:44 +0000
Subject: Dear Winner

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY
(Unity Trust PLC)
Liverpool, L70 1NL
UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369

Dear Sir/Ma,

WINNING NOTIFICATION

We happily announce to you the draw (#1022) of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY,
online sweepstakes International program held on sat 8th October2005,Your
e-mail address attached to ticket number: 56475600545 188 with Serial
number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers:01-04-07-44-47-48(bonus no.14), which
subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category i.e match 5 plus
bonus.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £1,500,000{One
Million Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain pounds Sterling) in cash
credited to file TU/9023118308/03. This is from a total cash prize of
£54,000,000 {Fifty Four Million Great Britain pounds sterling} shared
amongst the {36} lucky winners in this category i.e Match 5 plus bonus. 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. This
promotion takes place weekly.

Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our European booklet
representative office in Europe as indicated in your play coupon. In view of
this, your £1,500,000 {One Million Five Hundred thousand Great Britain
pounds sterling) would be released to you by any of our payment offices in
Europe. Our European agent will immediately commence the process to
facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact him. For
security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information
confidential till your claims 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. To file for your claim,
please contact us on laura4jill@yahoo.co.uk. You can go to our online result
site to confirm the value of your winnings and also get a prize
breakdown:-www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/results/results.do. Good luck
from me and members of staff of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs. Laura Jill
Secretary for UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
(Unity Trust PLC)
Sweepstakes International Program

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam