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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
• Support our efforts to stop scams!
  
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• What can you do when you receive 419 spam
  
  
• 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.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "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!
• 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.
  • +447011132446 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
• 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.
  • european_lotterycompany10@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Becky owen <beckyowen01@suffolk.edu>
Reply-To: info_internationalawards008@yahoo.de
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 04:36:38 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Dear Sir/Ma .


EUROPEAN PRIZE AWARD DEPT
1 Plough Place,
London EC4A 1DE
UNITED KINGDOM
REF: WE67/4360/34
BATCH: 11/4578/GN

Dear Sir/Ma .
Top of days greetings to you.Finally today, we
announce that you are
one of the winners of the ELECTRONIC LOTTERY
PROGRAMS.
held on 7th January,2008. Your company and your
personal
e-mail addresses, attached to ticket number:
7-1-8-36-4-22 under
agent ID: 18 and lucky ball number 7363789,which
consequently won in the Tenth lottery category.
You have therefore been awarded a lump sum pay out
of 860,641.28 Great British Pounds(GBP) which
amounts to $1,500,000.00 (One Million,Five Hundred
Thousand United States DOLLARS).
The online draws was conducted by a random selection
of email addresses
from an exclusive list of 29,031 E-mail addresses of
individuals and
corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated
random computer search
from the internet. No ticket were sold but all email
addresses were
assigned to different ticket numbers for
representation and privacy.
This is to encourage our prominent and consistent
Microsoft Internet
Explorer users all over the world, and for the
Continues use of E-mail.
Your fund has been insured with your identification
number
{CPEL/OWN/9876}. To claim your winning prize, you
must first contact
the claims department by email for Processing and
remittance of your prize to you.
Mr.David Nelson
TEL:+44-701-113-2446
TEL:+44-702-407-7543
FAX:+44-707-570-0301
EMAIL:european_lotterycompany10@yahoo.com.hk
Do email the above email address all at once. In
order to avoid
unnecessary delays and complications, please
remember to quote your
reference and winning numbers in all correspondences
with your claims officer.
You are to keep all lotto information away from the
general public
especially your ticket number and ballot number.All
your personal datas
are to be sent to YAHOO/MICROSOFT ACCREDITED AGENT
via email for the
processing of your winning.
FILL THE FORM BELOW WITH YOUR DATAS
1.Full Name:____________________
2.Address:______________________
3.Nationality:____________________
4.Age:______________________________
5.Occupation:____________________
6.Phone:________________________
7.State of Origin:_________________
8.Country:______________________

Sincerely,
Mrs. Becky Owen
Online Co-ordinator Secretary
====================================================

OUR Executives:
Dr. P. Swier (CEO), Mr. Gerald Goodman (Manager
Foreign Operations), Mr. Franklyn Van Der Weijden
(Manager Domestic Banking Operations), Dr. James
Williams (Director International Credit Department),
Mrs. Lonni K Anderson (Legal Representative), Mrs.
Lyudmyla Marchukova(Regional Manager), Mr. Stephen
Boer (Chairman), Mr. Chris Moritz(International
Relation Officer).

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam