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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:

• 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.
  • +447031944536 (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.
  • neils75@hotmail.com
  • 02@hotmail.com

Fraud email example:

From: "sink julian" <julian-sink@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 02:45:27 +0000
Subject: INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS PROGRAMME!!!...

FROM: PROMOTIONS DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL PROMO BV, WINNING NOTICE FOR
SILVER STAKE WINNER - Ref. No.- IP/04/652659966/BV

Attention:

The International Promotions has just concluded its final draws of it's
periodical promotional program.

An exclusive list of email addresses of thousands of individual and
corporate bodies were picked by automated random computer search from the
internet.

No tickets were sold.

Your email address emerged as one of seven winners in the silver stakes
category as email addresses were soughted,from a total number of 25,000
addresses drawn from all over the globe.

After an automated computer ballot of our International Promotions Program,
only SEVEN winners emerged in this category and therefore each are to
receive payouts of 516,000,00 from the total of 3,612,000.00 (THREE MILLION
SIX HUNDRED AND TWELVE THOUSAND EUROS).

However,every email address selected was accompanied by a reference and
ticket number,after the cyber lotto selection,the below ticket and reference
numbers emereged as one of the lucky winners in the above category.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Reference number for your prize is:Ref. No.- IP/04/652659966/BV
Ticket No.- IP87866BV

For confirmation of the claim of your prize money,you are to send an email
to our customer service representative with informations below for further
instructions on how you can claim your prize:

Robert Niels
Customer Service Representative
International Promotions BV,
email:robert-neils75@hotmail.com
cc:robertneils-02@hotmail.com
contact: +447031944536

You may be required to provide any of the above information during the
process of collecting your prize.

We congratulate you once again and it is our hope that you participate in
any of our international programs in the nearest future.

Thank you and CONGRATULATIONS!!!.

Sincerely,
Julia Sink,
Promotions Manager
International Promo BV
sinkjulia@internationalpromo.com

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam