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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

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:
  • "fondazione di vittorio" (not involved with lotteries)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "hundred thousand 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)
  • ",500,000" (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)
  • "00,000.00" (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!

Fraud email example:

From: "Fondazion De Vittorio" <GS14403@att.net>
Reply-To: fonda_zion_e@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:36:11 +0000
Subject: NOTIFICATION FOR CASH AID....



--
Fondazion De Vittorio,
http://www.fondazionedivittorio.it

Attention:Recipient,

NOTIFICATION FOR CASH AID.

The Foundazion di Vittorio, would
like to notify you that you have
been chosen by the board of
trustees as one of the final
recipients of a Grant/Donation
cash aid of
USD$1,500,000.00 (One Million Five
Hundred Thousand United States
Dollars) for your own personal
education, and business
development.

The Fondazione Di Vittorio,
established 1977 by the Multi-
Million groups and now supported
by United Nations Organization
(UNO) and the European Union
(EU),is conceived
with the objective of human
growth, educational, and community
development thereby uplifting the
standard of living of people.
Based on the random selection
exercise of internet websites and
millions of supermarket cash
invoices worldwide, you were
selected among the lucky
recipients to receive the
award sum of US$1,500,000.00 (One
Million Five Hundred Thousand
United S

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam