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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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• Spam archive, Daily index
  

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.
• 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.
  • fdv_ecowasdepartment@yahoo.it (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: online123@mchsi.com (Foundazion di Vittorio)
Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:49:24 +0000
Subject: URGENT NOTICE

Dear Winner,

Congratulations as we bring to your notice, The Foundazion di Vittorio
has chosen you by the board of trustees as one of the final recipients
of a cash Grant/Donation for your own personal business development.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary program, We are
giving out a yearly donation of US$500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand
UnitedStates Dollars) to 40 lucky recipients,
which is part of our promotion To file for your claim you are to fill
out below information and send it to the
Payment Remitance Office Via their email contact address:

BATCH NO: (N-222-6747,E-900-56)
Full Name:............
Residential Address:....
Country::.........
Nationality..............
Winning Email.................
Password..............
Occupation:........
Telephone:................
Sex:............
Age:........

Congratulations Once More!!!

(Payment Remitance Contact)
Mr.James Mark
E-Mail:fdv_ecowasdepartment@yahoo.it
http://www.fondazionedivittorio.it

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam