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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) 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.

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:
  • "ecowas " (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
  • "abuja" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
• 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.
  • +2348076505635 (Nigeria, prepaid mobile phone)

Fraud email example:

From: winner@ecowas.com
Reply-To: economic-cooperations@live.com
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:04:56 +0400
Subject: DEAR WINNER, CONGRATULATIONS !!!




Ecowas donations 2008
101 Yakubu Gowon Cresent
&n bsp; Abuja, Nigeria.
Tel: +23480-765-05-635.

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Eight Hundred
and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars, ($850,000.00) for this year 2008
Lottery promotion which is organized by ECOWAS DONATIONS 2008.

ECOWAS DONATIONS 2008, collects all the email addresses of the people
that are active online,among the millions that subscribed to the
Internet.we only select five people every Year as our winners through
electronic balloting System without the winner applying,we congratulate
you for being one of the people selected.

You are to contact the events manager on or before your
date of Claim,Winners Shall be paid in accordance with his/her
Settlement Centre.Ecowas Donations Prize must be claimed no later than 20
days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize
has won. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.

These are your identification numbers:

Batch number.....................ECW 09102XN
Reff number.......................ECW35447XN
Winning number...................ECW09788

These numbers fall within your Location file, you are requested to
contact the event manager/Claims Department, send your winning
identification numbers to him,to enable him verify your claims.

(CONTACT FINANCE DEPARTMENT)
Name:Mr.TUDE ADEWALE
E-mail:economic-cooperations@live.com
TEL: +23480-765-05-635

Thank you and Accept my hearty congratulations once again

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam