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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!
  
• How to report 419 spam to us
• 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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • ",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)
• 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: "Powerball Lottery" <powerballot@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 14:42:04 +0100
Subject: Congratulation!!! Cash award winner


POWERBALL LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL.
FROM:INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION / PRIZE AWARD DEPT.
UNITED KINGDOM.
Ref Nr: PBL/CN/6654/CP
BATCH: EHGS-541-623-782.

Finally today 4TH OF JULY 2008, the result of winners of the POWER
BALL LOTTERY International E-mail programs held on the 4TH OF JULY
2008 was announced.Your company or your personal e-mail address
attached to ticket number 653-908-321-675 with serial number 345-790-
241-671 drew lucky star numbers are 34-32-90-43-32 which consequently
won in the category "A", you have therefore been approved for a lump
sum pay out of £1,850,000.00GBP(One Million Eight Hundred & Fifty
Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling).

Selection process was carried out through random selection in our
computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ) from a database of over
1,000,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the
world.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 Microsoft Internet
Explorer users all over the world.This is to encourage users to
Continues the use of E-mail and non users to try and use
emails.Microsoft Electronic Mail Lottery is approved and Licensed by
the The International Association of Lotteria ( IAL).And ensure to keep
your winning information from the public unitl your winning award is
finally credited into your designat ed account of
your choice.

To claim your winning prize,you should contact the office by email for
Processing.

ONCE AGAIN CONGRATULATIONS!!!



Remember,all winning must be claimed not later than two weeks,after
this date all unclaimed funds will be included in the next stake.Please
note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please
remember to quote your Reference number and Batch numbers in all
correspondence with the claims officer.



Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Ruth Morrison
(Announcer/Lottery Coordinator).

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam