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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:
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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:
  • "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "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 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.
  • claimsoffice02007@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Ladbrokes Online Lottery" <staffneeded@otsukacompany.info> (may be fake)
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 13:41:12 +0200 (MEST)
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!(You have been selected as one of the nine lucky winners)


Pembrokes-shire Online Lottery
P O Box 657
London, United Kingdom
(Customer Services)
ONLINE WEB LOTTERY WINNINGS OF £880,000.00
We happily announce to you the draws of Pembrokes-shire Online Lottery, an Online International Sweepstakes Program held on Saturday 9th September, 2006. Your email address attached to ticket/serial number IE6098-05, with serial number IE535-29 drew the lucky numbers:
1-15-24-37-42-50 (bonus no. 33), With Ref. Number: IES/376O05/77, Batch Number: 05/507/IES360 and subsequently won the lottery in the 1st category.
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £880,000.00 (Eight hundred and eighty thousand pounds sterling) in cash credited to file ISPR/7563409218/05. This is from a total cash prize of £8,680,770.00 shared amongst the first nine (9) lucky Winners in this category.
All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from
over 154,000 Unions, Associations and Corporate Bodies listed online.
In view of this, your £880,000.00 (Eight hundred and eighty thousand pounds sterling) would be released to you by any of our payment offices.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claim is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize.
This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program.
Deductions from WINNING SUM are not allowed until WINNING SUM has been handed over to the winner. Please be warned.
To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent,with the following informations:
1.Full Names..................
2.Residential Address.............
3.Phone Number............
4.Fax Number...............
5.Occupation...............
6.Sex.......... ..............
7.Age...........................
8.Nationality..... ...........

Pembrokes-shire Online Lottery Winnings
P O Box 657
London, United Kingdom
(Customer Services)
Email: claimsoffice02007@yahoo.com.hk
All prize money must be claimed in ten working days. After this date, all funds will be returned as unclaimed.

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please always remember to quote your reference and batch numbers in every
correspondence with your claims agent.
Furthermore, should there be any change of your address, do inform your claims agent as soon as possible.
Please include your private telephone and fax numbers while replying.
Congratulations once again from our team of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Stephanie Howard
Lottery Coordinator
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Anybody under the age of 17 is AUTOMATICALY DISQUALIFIED and Any BREACH of CONFIDENTIALITY on the part of the WINNERS will result to disqualification.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam