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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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:

• 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!

Fraud email example:

From: "Harris Steiner" <swisslinternational@gmail.com> (may be fake)
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2006 02:56:35 +1300
Subject: RE:PAYMENT NOTIFICATION


Dear Sir/Madam,

RE:PAYMENT NOTICE

We are pleased to inform you of the official announcement yesterday of the winners of the Swiss Lottomillionäre International lottery programme held on friday 22nd September 2006.
You or your company, attached to ticket number 7FM-GE83,serial number 2B-739F drew the lucky numbers 16-17-28-33-37-45-14, and consequently won the lottery in the international category.

You have therefore been approved for a lumpsum payment of US$850,000.00 (Eight hundred and fifty thousand USD) in cash
credited to file with Ref No: SWL/82M/06D67 and Batch No: 06/HS4M/UK.
This is from total prize money of US$17,000,000.00 shared among 20 international winners in this category.

All participants were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from over 325,000 companies and individuals from Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Europe, North America, South America and Asia as part our International promotions program for the year 2006, conducted bi-annually.

Congratulations!

Your fund is now deposited with our finance company in the United Kingdom and insured in your name.
Due to the mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this award strictly private from public notice until your claim has been fully processed and your total prize money remitted to your designated bank account.
This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants of this program. We hope with a part of your prize money, you will participate in our end of year high stakes of US$70 Million International lottery jackpot slot to be held in December 2006.

For the immediate collection of your prize money, Please contact directly our Payment Manager in the United Kingdom:

Verena Schmidts
Foreign Payment Manager
Swiss Lottomillionäre Europayoffice
London EC3A 6AT,United Kingdom
Tel/Fax:448717151854
E-mail:vschmidts@aggies.com


Your prize money must be claimed before 10th October 2006, after this date all unclaimed funds/Winnings will be rolled over and returned back to the treasury as Invalid.
All correspondences to MRS.VERENA SCHMIDTS should have this email sent along with it along with your Contact Address, Country of residence and your Email address.
Furthermore, should there be any change of your Contact Address, do inform our Foreign Payment Manager as soon as possible.
Congratulations again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our programme.

Sincerely,

Harris Steiner
Vice-Presidents, Awards
Swiss Lottomillionäre International
Lange Gasse 20 CH-4052 Basel Switzerland

NOTE. Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result to instant disqualification.
PLEASE CONTACT MRS.VERENA SCHMIDTS BY E-MAIL, TELEPHONE OR FAX IMMEDIATELY

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam