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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
  (+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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "million british pounds" (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)
  • ",000,000" (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)
  • "u.k " (this email uses bad English)
• 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.
  • +447031821375 (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.
  • philhectorclaimagent@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "roseparoit4" <roseparoit4@terra.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 08:55:26 -0300
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION / FINAL NOTICE.................CONGRATULATIONS



THE YAHOO INTERNET LOTTERY
------------ LONDON-----------
London Grace Church Street
#:77-80 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 0AS U.K
YOU HAVE WON £1,000,000.00 POUNDS FROM YAHOO 2008 INTERNET LOTTERY!!,
CONGRATULATIONS

Attn: Email Owner,

Yahoo/Hotmail! EMail gives members random cash prizes. Today, your email ID is randomly selected as the one of the Twelve (12) top winner’s Email ID who will get cash prizes from us. We are happy to inform you that you have won prize money of £1,000,000.00 Pounds (One Million British Pounds Only) for this month of (July) Lottery Online Promotion which is organized by Yahoo/Hotmail Messenger.com every month.

Yahoo/Hotmail, collects all the email ID of the people that are online on Yahoo,Hotmail,Rediffmail,Aol Etc. among the millions that subscribe to yahoo/hotmail and other email account. We only select Twelve (12) people every month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we are congratulating you for been one of the people selected. All participants were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually.

This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomerate of some Multinational companies as part of their social responsibility to the Citizens in the communities where they have operational base. Further more your details (E-mail address) falls within our British representative office in United Kingdom, as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of £1,000,000.00 Pounds will be released to you from this regional branch office here in UK.

We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year High stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw.

TO BEGIN YOUR CLAIM, KINDLY CONTACT YOUR CLAIM AGENT WITH THE BELLOW INFORMATION:
CONTACT NAME : MR PHIL HECTOR
CONTACT NUMBER : +44-7031821375
CONTACT E-MAIL : philhectorclaimagent@yahoo.co.uk


YOU ARE REQUIRED TO FORWARD HIM WITH THE FOLLOWING DETAILS:
1. YOUR FULL NAME:...................
2. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:............
3. PRESENT ADDRESS:...............
4. DATE OF BIRTH:.......................
5. OCCUPATION:...........................
6. TELEPHONE NUMBER:........
6. FAX NUMBER (IF ANY):.......
7. MARITAL STATUS:...............
8. BATCH, LOTTO AND REFERENCE NUMBERS.

These are your identification numbers:
Batch number......................Lwh 09445
Lotto number........................Lwh09446
Reference Number...............Yah/Lwh/002B/07

As soon as you contact you’re Claim Agent, he will advise you on what to do in order to get your prize money. Congratulations once more, for security reasons, we advice all winners to keep there information Confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your Prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this program by non-participant or unofficial personnel.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr.MRS.ROSE PAROIT (Phd)
Lotto Co-Ordinator.
The Yahoo.com staff
http://www.yahoo.com

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam