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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:

• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "uk national lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• 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.
  • +447024047142 (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.
  • agentbarryjones@gmail.com

Fraud email example:

From: Baumler_Stacey <Baumler_Stacey@roberts.edu>
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:24:52 -0400
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?You_Won_=A3750,000.00_in_the_Lucky_draw_held,contact_Mr_Ba?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?rry_Jones_on_agentbarryjones@gmail.com?=

UK National Lottery
P O Box 1010
Liverpool, L70 1NL
UNITED KINGDOM
Ref: UK/9420X/05
Batch: 074/05/ZY369

Dear Winner,

We are pleased to inform you of the final announcement of winners of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY ONLINE PROMO PROGRAMME, held on the 1st of AUGUST,2008.Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 56475600545 188 with Serial number5368/02 drew the winning numbers:01-14-21-3-35-48, and a bonus number of 24 which subsequently won you the lottery in the second category.You have there fore been approved to claim a total sum of £750.000 (Seven Hundred and fifty thousand Pounds Sterling)in cash credited to KTU/9023118308/03. This is from a total cash prize of £6,782 shared amongst the first Ten (10) lucky winners in this category. Allparticipants of this online promotion programme were selected randomly from numerous World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from close to 125,000 unions.Your assigned claims agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact him via electronic mail(email).To file for your claim, please complete the form below and send it to your claims agent via Email.

Name: Mr Barry Jones
Email: agentbarryjones@gmail.com
Tel:+44 702 404 7142

VERIFICATION FORM
FULL NAME................................................
WINNING E-MAIL..................................
FULL ADDRESS:............................................
SEX:................................
AGE....................................
OCCUPATION.............................
TEL.................... MOBILE................
COUNTRY................................

Yours Truly,
Sir Baumler Stacey (Co-ordinator)

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam