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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:
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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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "microsoft lottery" (no such lottery exists)
• 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.
  • +447045720571 (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.
  • claimsofficerpetergreen@yahoo.com.cn (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Microsoft=?ISO-8859-1?B?rg==?= Award Department<claimsofficerpetergreen@yahoo.com.cn>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:32:12 +1200
Subject: FILE FOR CLAIM

MICROSOFT AWARD TEAM
Microsoft Corporation
#1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052.

WINNING NOTIFICATION:

Your email address won you 500,000,00GBP in the just concluded e-mail beta test program done by Microsoft Award
promotion in marking the 2008 Anniversary,
The BRITISH MICROSOFT Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board.
your email was attach to Ticket number: 08795727498, Serial
numbers:BTD/968/07 Lucky number:14-21-25-39-40-47.

All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through computer draw system
and extracted from over 100,000 unions,associatons and corporate bodies that are listed online.

Your (500,000,00GBP) will be released to you by any of our
payment offices in Europe.
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential untill your claims is processed and
your money remitted to you.

This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program.Please be
warned.

To file for your claim kindly fill this verification form below correctly and send it to the fiduciary department agent
for VALIDATION.

Mr Peter Green.
Foreign Services Manager, Payment and Release order
Department,CLAIMS PROCESSING LOTTERY AGENT.
TRANS-ATLANTIC S.A LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 704 5720 571
E-mail :claimsofficerpetergreen@yahoo.com.cn

Details Of Beneficiary
Full Names:...............
Address:...........................
Country:...........................
Telephone:.........................
Gender:............................
Marital Status:....................
Age:...............................
Email Address:.....................

© Microsoft Award Team.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam