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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:

• 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.
  • ralphsmith20010@yahoo.fr

Fraud email example:

From: "UKSTAKE LOTTERY" <ogazi02@msn.com>
Reply-To: ralphsmith20010@yahoo.fr
Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 03:07:46 +0000
Subject: CONGRATULATION

OVERSEAS STAKE LOTTERY
INTERNATIONAL UK.
BATCH NUMBER : AT-040SB06-03

Attention: Winner

We are pleased to inform you that as a result of our recent
lottery draw held on the 18th December 2005, your email address
attached to ticket number 27522465896 with serial number 652-662
draw lucky numbers 7-14-18-23-31-45 which consequently won the 2nd
category for a lump sum pay out of 1,000.000.00 (Euro) (ONE MILLION
EURO).

Note that all participants in this lottery program have been
selected randomly through a complete ballot system drawn from over
20,000 companies and 30,000 individual email addresses from all
search engine and website.

This programme takes place every year and is promoted and sponsored
by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei, Bill gate of
Microsoft inc and other Corporate Organizations. This is to encourage
the use of the internet worldwide.

For security purpose and clarity, we advise that you keep you
winning information confidential until your claims have been
processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our
security protocol to avoid double.

As a result of too many winners we are treating on hand and also making ways
on how they can catch their winning money, so therefore you are requested to
contact our clearance officer in Benin Republic West Africa to assist you
with your winnings and subsequent payments. All winning must be claimed
not later than one week after the date of this notice.

Below is the contact of our clearance officer in Benin Republic West Africa.

Name:Ralph Smith
Email: ralphsmith20010@yahoo.fr

To avoid delay in claiming your winning fund you are therefore needed to
forward to the below information.

1)Your full names and address
2)Country of origin/home address
3)Tel/fax line.
4)Your ticket num and serial number.

Please note, in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications,
remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers in all
correspondence. Furthermore, should there be any change of address
do inform our agent as soon as possible.

Congratulations once more and thank you for being part of our
program.

Your Sincerely,
Elizabeth Mcknight.
(LOTTERY SECRETARY)

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam