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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "yahoo lottery inc" (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "hundred thousand us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• 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.
  • john_lotteryagent@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "MRS. KATE DAVIDS" <mrskate40@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <kate_microsoftworldlottery@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:17:53 +0100
Subject: ATTENTION WINNER


ATTENTION WINNER,
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of ONE MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS ($1.5M) for the YEAR 2007 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO LOTTERY INC & WINDOWS LIVE. YAHOO, MSN & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail we only select TEN people every YEAR as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected.
PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
You are to contact your Claims Agent on or before your date of Claim, Winners Shall be paid in accordance with his/her Settlement Centre. Yahoo Lottery Prize must be claimed no later than 14 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited. These are your identification numbers:Batch number.....................YM 09102XNReff number......................YM35447XNWinning number...................YM09788You are therefore advise to send the following information to the Claim Agent to facilitate them and process the transfer of your fund. Contact the claim agent. Name: Mr. JOHN FINGLETON E-mail: john_lotteryagent@yahoo.co.uk 1. Full name..................2. Country....................3. Contact Address............4. Telephone Number...........5. Marital Status.............6. Occupation.................7. Age........................8. Sex........................Congratulations!! Once again.Yours in service, MRS KATE DAVIDS.
_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam