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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:

• 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" (no such lottery exists)
• 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.
  • infogarrylee_2007@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: British International Lottery <brit_lotto2007@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 19:37:19 +0100 (BST)
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE WON!!!


Attn:

We are delighted to inform you of your prize release on the 20th May 2007 from the British International Lottery programme.

Which was based on an electronic selection of winners using their e-mail addresses , your email was attached to ticket number 470690902/AL , serial number 7002/AL, this batch draws the lucky numbers as follows 5-13-37-42/AL bonus number 17,which consequently won the lottery in the 1st category.

You hereby have been approved a lump sum of £1,000,000,00. GBP in cashcredit to file ref ILP/HW 475/07,all participant were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses all over the World as part of our international promotions program which is conducted quarterlly.

Further more your details (e-mail address) falls europe, your prize of £1,000,000,00 GBP will be released to you from our regional office in London:

Contact Your fiducial agent,Dr.garry Lee to claim your prize,through e-mail
Email: { infogarrylee_2007@yahoo.com }



Sincerely,
Agent Tedder David.


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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam