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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery 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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "you are advise to" (this email uses bad English)
• 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: irish lotto <irish.contactagent@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:45:08 +0100 (BST)
Subject: REMITTANCE METHOD.


Date;15th June, 2007.
Dear Claudelle Tromm,

I am in reciept of your mail and and accept my congratulations on behalf of all the staff of the National Lottery program. As was explained, your email address was randomly selected along with others from over 100,000 websites on the internet. Each email address was attached to a ticket number. Your email address was selected as one of the lucky winners.

Your claims have been processed and the confirmation of payment has be sent to the security and delivery department for the dispatchment of your prize money.To this effect your are required to come down to UNITED KINGDOM to claim your prize.However winners that are far from the Uk are giving other options to claims their funds.


You are advise to indicate below your prefered method of claims payment

PAYMENT OPTIONS

1.WIRE TRANSFER............
2.CHEQUE DELIVERY........

IF CHEQUE,WHICH WOULD BE VIA COURIER

UPS...............
POSTAL/CONTACT ADDRESS ...........( where your cheque,winning certificate and other vital documents will be courier to you).

AND IF WIRE TRANSFER:
YOUR COMPLETE BANK DETAILS FOR WIRE TRANSFER..........

Also you are also required to attest to the declaration below


DECLARATION:
I,...............................................................HEREBY
DECLARE THAT I HAVE NEVER RECIEVED ANY SETTLEMENT
FROM THE IRISH CYBER LOTTERYNOR ANY MEMBER OF
MY FAMILY,FRIEND OR COLLEAGUE FILED CLAIM ON MY
BEHALF TO IRISH CYBER LOTTERY. I, THEREFORE
AUTHORIZE, NATIONAL LOTTERY DEPT TO ACT ON MY BEHALF
IN THE PROCESSING AND SEND MY PRIZE AS INSTRUCTED BY ME.

You are required to send to us your full information as requested in the first mail that was sent to you.

Note. Its important that you keep your winnings very confidential as we have receive several bogus emails from person using winners identity to press for claims.We have paid several imposters who successfully represent themselves as winners propably because they got into winners identity. Its important you heed to this advice.


On behalf of the IRISH LOTTERY,we say congratulations!!!

Regards,
Mr.Russel Moris
Irish Claims Agent.






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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam