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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• 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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "uk national lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "deadline" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
• 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.
  • harris.mark_harris1950@yahoo.co.uk

Fraud email example:

From: Mark Harris <mark.harris4@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <mark_harris1950@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 03:23:01 -0600
Subject: YOUR ERNEST ASSISTANCE




Dear Friend,Good day to you, I am Mr. Mark Harris, a citizen of the United Kingdom. I work with National Lottery Commission and Camelot Group PLC, "the official monitoring body and the operator of the UK National Lottery". I would like you to assist me so that we can claim the total sum of £8,497,985(Eight Million Four Hundred And Ninety Seven Thousand, Nine Hundred And Eighty Five Great Britain pounds sterling) for our mutual benefit. The said amount is an unclaimed lottery prize fund from the National Lottery. The prize result was released over five months ago and since the result was released, the winner of the prize has not come with the winning lottery ticket to claim his or her winning prize. Sadly, there is a claim deadline of 180days(six months) for the claim of the prize; which means that, after the deadline of 180 days, the funds will be forfeited and remitted to the UK.Government if unclaimed. There has been several cases like this were some winners failed to claim their lottery winnings, and the prize were forfeited and remitted to the UK Government treasury.You can check the below BBC news and UK Lottery Post links to see and understand what I am talking about:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/4573760.stm

http://www.lotterypost.com/news/76009

http://www.lotterypost.com/news/114930http://www.lotterypost.com/news/104653.htm
http://www.lotterypost.com/news/125879
Below are some of the reasons why some winners fail to claim their winning prize: 1. The winner may have accidentally throw away the tickets or lost track of the winning ticket number and other vital information as regards the lucky win.
2. Some winners do not check their tickets properly.
3.The winner may not be aware of the victory .
4. The National Lottery does not advice/inform winners of their winning via email hence some may not be aware that they won in the draws.

5. Some persons are very scared to process their winnings via online as many fraudulent emails are circulating using the name of my company(The National Lottery) to scam innocent people. Please note that the National Lottery does not give out prizes via email notification. You must buy a lottery ticket, play the lottery and win in the draws before you can claim a prize.In view of the above, I hereby seek your consent to cooperate with me so that I can provide you the winning information of the prize funds of £8,497,985 to enable you claim the funds. When the funds is paid to you, I shall compensate you with 45% of the total fund, 50% will be for me while the remaining 5% will be for travelling expenses, hotel accommodation, documentation fees and other unforeseen expenses.As soon as I receive an acknowledgement of your acceptance, I will furnish you with the necessary modalities of the transaction.All I require from you is your honest cooperation and confidentiality in this regard to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law as I have mapped out all plans to ensure we claim this funds without any trace in the future.I look forward to your quick response while thanking you for your anticipated co-operation.Best regards,Mark Harris.mark_harris1950@yahoo.co.uk
_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam