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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: europwlotterij@netscape.net
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 11:46:49 -0400
Subject: ATTN: VICTIM-FULLNAME.

Dear VICTIM-FULLNAME,

In acknowledgement of the mail sent to us in regarding of your question,We are pleased to briefed you about the promotion which were aimed to promote Internet user.All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 10,000,000 companies and 30,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world, names from Australia, New Zealand, America, Europe, North America, Middle East, Africa and Asia as part of International Promotions Program. This promotional program takes place once a year.
This lottery is promoted by the software and Internet giant corporations to compensate some few individuals with website and email addresses, You are consequently won in the 1st category, which you have been approved for a lump sum pay out of 1,500,000.00 Euros (One Million Five Hundred Thousand Euros).
we hope with part of your winning you will take part in our next year international lottery.
We therefore Urge you to proceed in claiming your prize as soon as possible.
Lastly,we are using this great opportunity to mail you that due to some problem encountered as at last year bonanza,you are to provide these bracket information (Ref. Number and Batch Number ) for easy identification that you are one of the lucky winners for this year (category A ) send it as email to us.


Best Regards,
Mrs. Cor-Jan Olfien Delaine.
Lottery Coordinator
EuroPW Lottery Program.
www.europw.com

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam