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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
• "Is that email a scam?" - Check it online here!
  
• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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• What can you do when you receive 419 spam
  
  
• Spam archive, Daily index
  

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!

Fraud email example:

From: "mike zondi" <mike_zondiza@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:54:59 +0200
Subject: LOTTO PRIZE

Dear Winner,

We are in receipt of your mail and we wish to inform you that all
arrangments have been finally concluded to effect the transfer of your
winnings to your account details once we finish the verification exercise.
Do note that we recently took delivery of the total winnings from our
sponsors and you have one month to claim your winnings as instructed by the
company.

The funds have been fully insured by this organisation and deposited with
our paying bank through which your funds will be transfered. You are advised
as a matter of urgency to provide us with the following informations so that
we will proccess your clerance and issue same to our paying bank for them to
make the neccessary payment of your prize.

Informations required are as follows,

1: YOUR FULL RESIDENTIAL AND OFFICE ADDRESSES.
2: YOUR CONTACT TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBERS.
3: YOUR REFERENCE, TICKET, BATCH AND WINNING NUMBERS.
4: A PHOTOCOPY OF YOUR IDENTIFICATION (PASSPORT OR A VALID DRIVER'S
LICENSE).

Once we get this details, we will proccess your winnings and advise the bank
to effect remittance. NOTE: YOU MAY VISIT OUR PAYING BANK HERE IN SOUTH
AFRICA TO COLLECT YOUR PRIZE IN PERSON IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBT ABOUT THE
LOTTERY PROMOTION. Call the telephone number for more clarification.

Congratulations ,


(Claim Agent)

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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam