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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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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.

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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.
• This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
  
• 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.
  • paulwills2000@zwallet.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Paul Williams" <paulwilliams_23@msn.com>
Reply-To: paulwills2000@zwallet.com
Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 17:12:09 +0000
Subject: Thanks for your mail

From: Paul Williams
Allied Bank of South Africa.

Dear Sir,

I apologize for any inconvenience this letter might cause you,considering
the fact that you do not know me in person. I am Paul Williams, deputy
general manager, (foreign operations) with Allied Bank
of South Africa.

A client of ours, (name with held) from your country dead in an Egyptian
airplane crash in 1999, (<http://www.airsafe.com/flt990.htm>) he left some
amount of money in his account in our bank before his death. The bank has
been making frantic efforts to locate any of his relatives to
claim the Money, but this effort has not yielded any success.

Fortunately we found your name and decided to contact you, if you want
further information such as (a). The identity of the late client and (b) how
much money he left, kindly forward to us your phone and fax numbers to
enable us send the full details to you, your reply MUST be through
this email address: paulwills2000@zwallet.com


Yours faithfully,
Paul Williams

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam