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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

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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:

• 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.
  • lottopostbanknl@aim.com

Fraud email example:

From: "CHINESE OLYMPIC" <chineseolympic@live.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:16:56 +1000
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS...YOUR E-MAIL WON US$1.5MILLION............


Dear Sir/Ma,

YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS WON US$1.5MILLION FOR YOU........

Towards creating general mass awareness and followship of the July 2008
Beijing Olympic Games,being the first to be held in the world's fastest
growing economy -{China};The Chinese Olympic Committee in conjunction with
BLUELAKES LOTTERY PROMOTIONS are organising a monthly lottery
programme.Email addresses of people,corporates bodies and organisations are
extracted and winners are picked randomly by computer balloting system,in
this first edition Five Million E-mail addresses of internet users all over
the world were extracted and your e-mail address was picked in the second
category dip,and that qualifies you for a cash payment of the sum of
US$1.5Million.The paying bank is under LEGAL OBLIGATION to pay this amount
to you US$1.5Million as it is INSURED/BONDED ALREADY.Please be informed that
there are other several winners in different countries/continents worldwide
in the same category/different categories too.

All winners including your humble self are required to use a part of their
winnings for the develoment of ANY grassroot sport{s} in your locality or
for a charitable purposes in your locality that will bring hope to the
downtrodden.Your winning information,which are stated below fell under our
European payment center,therefore,you are required to urgently contact the
official prime European paying bank,for payment:-

WINNING INFORMATION:-

1}REFERENCE NUMBER:-EU/2457/2008/008

2.LUCKY DRAW NUMBER:-COC/000023675

3.SERIAL NUMBER:-290/200000000786

4.GAMES BONUS NUMBER:-52

Also send to the paying bank the following information so that they can
start in earnest the payment process of this winning prize sum of
US$1.5Million in your name and favour,they are:-

A}Your Full Name{s}________________________________________________________

B}Your contact street address:-____________________________________________
__

C}Your nationality{Your country of
origin}:_____________________________________

D}Your contact telephone numbers:__________________________________________
_______

E}Your age:____________________________

F}Your occupation:____________________________________

PLEASE CONTACT URGENTLY:-

THE PROCESSING OFFICER,
CHINESE OLYMPIC COMMITTEE PAYMENT DEPT
POSTBANK NL
HOLLAND-NETHERLANDS.
E-MAIL:-lottopostbanknl@aim.com. /////// lottopostbanknl@aim.com
WEB-PAGE:-www.postbank.nl

Your security file number is COC2090/WIN/2008 (keep personal) Remember,
your winning must be claimed quickly as failure to claim your winning prize
will obviously mean that it will be re-staked in our next lottery draws
which comes up very shortly ,so ensure that the needful is done now and
quickly too.Once again, accept our profound and sincere congratulations on
your winning.
Yours Sincerely.
Li Chang Lee
ONLINE COORDINATOR

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam