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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

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• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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• 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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "international lottery programme"
• 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.
  • lagent_office@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Australian International Lottery" <desesq07@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: lagent_office@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:31:24 +0000
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS

Ref: 435062725
Batch: 7050470902/189
Winning no: GB8101/LPRC

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are delighted to inform you of your prize which was released on the 15th
of June, 2006, from the Australian International Lottery programme,which is
fully based on an electronic selection of winners using their e-mail
addresses from some sites. Your email address was attached to ticket
number; 47001725 07056490102 and serial number 7741134002. This batch draws
the lucky numbers as follows 5-13-33-37-42 andbonus number 17,which
consequently
won the lottery in the second category.

You hereby have been approved a lump sum pay of US$200,000.00 (TWO HUNDRED
THOUSAND DOLLARS) in cash credit file ref: ILP/HW 47509/09 from the total
cash prize shared amongst eight lucky winners in this category. All
participants were selected through a computer balloting system drawn form
Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United
States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our
international promotion program
which is conducted annually.

This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomorate of some
multinational companies as part of their social responsibility to the
citizens in the commmunities where they have an operational base.
Furthermore, your details(e-mail address) falls within our European
representative office in Amsterdam, Holland as indicated in your play coupon
and your prize of US$200,000.00 will bereleased to you from this regional
branch office in TOGO. We hope that with part of your prize, youwill
participate in our end of year high stakes for US$1.3 Billion international
draw.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE: Simply contact our fiducial agent,REV.FREDRICK
GEORGE as to file for your claim . Please quote your reference, batch and
winning numberwhich can be found on the top left corner of this notification
as well as your full name, address and telephone number to help locate
your file easily. For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this
information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and
your prize released to you.

This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and
unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participants or
unofficial personnel. Note, all winnings MUST be claimed on or before the
30th July 2006; otherwise all funds will be returned as Unclaimed and
eventually donated to charity organisations.

PLEASE CONTACT REV.FREDRICK GEORGE, so that he will tell you of how you will
receive your winning prize.

NAME: REV.FREDRICK GEORGE.
EMAIL::lagent_office@yahoo.com
Web.www.australialotto.com
Bank.Eco Bank
Web.www.ecocard.com
Congratulations once again on your win!!!
Best Regards (co-ordinator)

_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam