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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:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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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:
  • "please endeavor to " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "million united states 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)
  • ",000,000" (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)
  • "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
• 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 mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
  • +31617623594 (Netherlands, prepaid mobile phone)

Fraud email example:

From: <lg-inc@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:10:27 -0700
Subject: Dear Beneficiary,

Foundation's Officer,
Association of European Charity Foundations,
Amsterdam, the Netherlands.


Dear Beneficiary,

NOTIFICATION FOR CASH AID.

This is to notify you that you have been chosen By the Board of trustees of
the above International charity organization branched in the Netherlands as
one of the final recipients of a Cash Grant/Donation for your own personal,
education and business development.

The international registered Foundation is named after over 5 top company
owners put together. The charitable foundation was reported by the business
newspaper, the Economist between the year 2000-2007 to be technically one of
the world's wealthiest charity foundation- worth billions of US$ - but its
primary purpose is BRINGING INNOVATIONS IN HEALTH AND LEARNING TO THE GLOBAL
COMMUNITY. George Soros is chairman of the foundation/association. Having
been rated as the founder and chairman of a network of foundations, the
foundation has decided to randomly select email addresses that would benefit
from this year's donation/award.

Association of European Charity Foundations in conjunction with the
European Union is giving out a yearly donation of One Hundred Million United
States Dollars as specific Donations/Grants to 50 lucky international
recipients worldwide in different categories for their educational pursuit,
health care, personal Business development and uplift of their environments.
These funds are freely given to you for your business, educational and
personal development and at least 30% to be used by you to develop a part of
your environments, as this is a yearly program, which is a measure of
universal development strategy, and eradication of poverty.

Please kindly note that you are not the only beneficiary in your country
this year and your country is not the only country that is benefiting from
this donation, as beneficiaries have been chosen from countries from all
continents.

The idea of this donation is that within ten years from now, there will be
notable richness amongst many unusual people around the world.

This will give many people the opportunity to get their lives to a stage
where they had always wanted. Kindly note that you will only be chosen to
receive the donation once. Which means that, subsequent yearly donation will
not get to you again, so it’s your choice to spend the donation wisely on
something that will last you a long time. And please do not bother following
up this email, if you have benefited from this donation in previous years.

Based on the random selection exercise of internet service providers (ISP)
and millions of Super market cash invoices worldwide, you were selected
among the lucky recipients to receive the award sum of US$5,000,000.00 (Five
Million United States Dollars) as charity donations/aid from the Association
Of European Charity Foundations and the UNO in accordance with the enabling
act of Parliament. Note that, your email was selected from either the
internet, or a Shop's cash invoice around your area in which you might have
purchased something from.

You are required to expeditiously Contact the Executive Secretary below for
qualification documentation and processing of your claims, from Monday
through Sunday.

On contact with this officer, you'll be given your donation pin number
which you will use in collecting the funds.

Please endeavor to quote your Qualification numbers (N-121-6537, G-001-06)
in all discussions.

***********************************
Executive Secretary,
Mr. Alexander Van Gogh
Tel: +31-617-623-594
Email: alexander@ikeainfonl.info
**********************************

Please note that this donation/Grant is strictly administered by "European
Union" under delegated powers from the UNO. You are hereby advised to keep
this whole information confidential until you have been able to collect your
donation, as there have been many cases of double and unqualified claim, due
to beneficiaries informing third parties about his/her donation.

Finally, all funds should be claimed by their respective beneficiaries, not
later that 7 days after notification, as failure will lead to cancellation
and your donation will be reserved for next year’s recipients.

On behalf of the Board kindly accept our warmest congratulations

Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Jenny Klein
(Foundation officer)

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam