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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) 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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
• 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.
  • samdede_001@yahoo.com

Fraud email example:

From: "shawstaker lottery" <shawstakerlotterysa@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 16:16:16 +0000
Subject: LOTTERY WINNING INFORMATIONS

DEAR SIR/MADAM

We are pleased to inform you of our announcement today, 27th December, 2005
of winners in the SHAWSTAKERS LOTTERY Promotional draw held on the 20th
December 2005. Participants were selected through a computer ballot system
drawn from 2,500,000 email addresses of individuals and companies from
Africa, America, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Middle East, and New
Zealandas part of our electronic business Promotions Program.You qualified
for the
draw as a result of youvisiting various e-business website we are running on
the Internet.

A ticket number 100-309-7482,with serial number 111 410-887 was attached to
your entry which drew the lucky numbers 1 10 29 37 45 49 and consequently
won in the second category.You are therefore awarded a cash prize of
US$900,000.00, which is the
winning payout for Second category winners.This is from the total prize
money of US$13,650,000.00 sharedamong several international/local winners in
the Second category.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You are to file in your claim to the director of claims department with the
information below to arrange for your payout,

Mr. Sam Dede
Tel:27-72-750-7865
Email:samdede_001@yahoo.com

Ensure that you contact the claim department not later than21 days from the
day you receive this notification message.

Sincerely,

MR FRED WILLIAMS.
THE PROMOTIONS MANAGER,
SHAWSTAKERS LOTTERY SOUTH AFRICA.



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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam