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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

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.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• 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.
  • +448712512322 (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.
  • ric_sanders@mailz.net (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "HELEN SMITH" <helensmith_500@msn.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 10:23:41 +0000
Subject: Final Notification

THE UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
Olympic Way,Sefton Business Park,
Aintree Liverpool, L70 1NL,
United Kingdom.
Machine Used For the Draw: EXCALIBUR 5.
Ball set used: T7
Our Ref: BNS-NL/0508/06.VOL.2/UK.
Your Ref: BNS-NL/02CTG/0508/06/UK.
Dear Sir/Madam,
RE: GRAND PRIZE AWARD WINNING NOTIFICATION - FINAL NOTICE .
We happily announce to you the draw (#521) of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY,online
Sweepstakes International program held on Wed 25 Jan 06.Participants were
selected at random through a computer ballot system drawn from over
30,000,000 people living in the following countries: United
Kingdom,America,Europe, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand,Middle-East,
Asia and Africa as part of our international promotions program conducted
annually to encourage prospective overseas participants.
The result of our computer draw 521 of this day selected your names and
email address on the lucky jackpot winning number: 02-13-18-23-24-07 which
consequently won the lottery jackpot grand prize awards in the 2nd category
i.e Thunderball Jackpot.
As a result, you have been approved in the 2nd Category for a Grand Price
lottery jackpot lump sum of GBP £250,000.00 (Two hundred and fifty thousand
Pounds Sterling Only) bonded and insured
under a comprehensive insurance policy in your names for security reasons
and credited to file Ref. No: BNS-NL/02CTG/0508/06/UK. This is from the
total prize of GBP£16,765,217.00 shared among the 749 lucky winners in
various categories as part of our promotional programme for this year 2005.
This is an opportunity that your fate has brought to you and we are honoured
to have you in our master database. We hope with part of this prize award
winning, you will take part in our subsequent lottery jackpots while we say,
Congratulations!!!
You can go to our online result site to confirm the value of your winnings
and also get a prize breakdown:-
http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/results/results.do
CLAIMS PROCEDURES:
For overseas lucky winners, it is our standard practices to allocate
accredited agents for the processing of claims application on behalf of
overseas lucky winners and payment of grand prize awards winning to the
benefit of beneficiaries after all modalities have been completed
satisfactorily.
To begin your claims therefore, you are advised on final notice and as a
matter of urgency, to contact via email our licensed and accredited claims
agent below for the processing of your prize awards winning. You must quote
your winning reference numbers when contacting the Claims Agent.
CLAIMS AGENT:
Mr.Richard Sanders
Email: ric_sanders@mailz.net
Fax: +448712512322
Provide him with the information below:
1. Name
2. Address
3. Occupation
4. Marital status
5. Age
6. Country(Present Location)
7. Nationality
8. Telephone and Fax numbers.
That way your winnings documentation and all other relevant paperwork can
be prepared for you.
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
(a) Being an Overseas lucky winner, you constitute entrant's full and
unconditional agreement to and acceptance to comply with the terms and
conditions of claims to avoid any discrepancy in the cause of payment of
your grand prize awards winning.
(b) Due to mixed up in some numbers and names and for the purpose of
confidentiality,be advised to keep this award notification as secret from
public notice until your claim has been processed and your prize money
remitted to your designated bank account as this is part of our
recautionary measures to avoid double claims or misuse of this programme by
some social miscreants.Hence,your prize award winning is confidential as our
winners are at liberty to remain completely anonymous until payment is
effected to the benefit of the beneficiary. Our staff are sworn to secrecy,
so you will be the only one to know what you have won hence, this
notification via this medium (EMAIL) to avoid interception of official
letters.
(c) By this bonus grand prize awards winning, you acknowledge your
understanding and acceptance to be added to our lottery master player
database.
(d) By this bonus grand prize awards winning, you agree to receive our
periodic mailings which will include, but are not limited to: Newsletters,
Invitations to Play, Announcements for other Lottery Games and Offers we
feel would be of interest to our master player.
(e) By this bonus grand prize awards winning, you understand that you have
the right to be removed from any such mailing list which automatically
disqualifies you from subsequent lottery entries. Removal instructions are
on every mailing.
(f) Finally, we hereby do solemnly guarantee to maintain the privacy of our
master players/lucky winners database and shall not make available for sale,
rent, lease or misuse any information about our players/lucky
winners.Hence,our staff are sworn to secrecy thereby ensuring adequate
security of personal information provided by our players/lucky winners.
In conclusion therefore, you are to take cognizance of the limited time
frame for claims processing and payment of your grand prize award winning.
Hence, this is a promotional programme prize awards for a stipulated period
of time and therefore, be advise on final notice to begin your claims
immediately hence, all prizes awards must be claimed and disbursed within
the stipulated period tagged "End of Claims" date as elapse of this date
will authorized funds withholding for redirection to Organisation Account as
unclaimed without notice.
On this note therefore, we congratulate you for your grand prize awards
winning and welcome you in our subsequent lottery entries.
As always, we remain at your complete disposal.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs.Helen Smith,
Promotion Coordinator,
International Promotions Unit.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam