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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:
  • "yahoo/msn lottery inc" (no such lottery exists)
  • "yahoo/msn lottery" (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "greater london" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "courier company" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
• 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.
  • +447024073813 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: "Yahoo.Msn Lottery Incoporation" <freeonlineticketdraw@googlemail.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:04:17 -0700
Subject: YOUR E-MAIL HAS BEEN SELECTED RANDOMLY


Yahoo/MsnLottery Incoporation
Baley House, Har Road
Sutton, Greater London
SM1 4te
United Kingdom.

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of (£500,000)FIVE
HUNDRED THOUSAND GREAT BRITAIN POUNDS STERLINGS for the month of AUGUST 2008
Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC & WINDOWS
LIVE. YAHOO & MSN MICROSOFT WINDOWS, collects all the email addresses of the
people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo
and Hotmail we only select five people every Month as our winners through
electronic balloting System without the winner applying,we congratulate you
for being one of the people selected.

PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM

These are your identification numbers:
Batch number.....................YM 09102XN
Reff number.......................YM35447XN
Winning number...................YM09788

These numbers fall within your Location file,you are requested to contact
EVENTS AGENT MANAGER. Send your winning identification numbers to them at
this contact address below. The Yahoo/MsnLottery Incoporation has given
TRANS COURIER COMPANY UK the contract to deliver all winners certified draft
to their respectively contact.

(CONTACT EVENTS AGENT MANAGER)

Mr. Jesse Elvis.
Email: transworldcourierclaimdelivery@live.com
Tel: +44 7024073813.

You are therefore advised to send the following information to the EVENTS
AGENT to facilitate them and process the COURIER of your money. You may
receive this E-mail more than once as the Yahoo/MsnLottery Incoporation
Award Promotion Board send it to its winners in most cases until every
winner has claimed his or her prize to ensure that all the winners receive
it.

1. Full name
2. Sex
3. Country
4. State
5. Contact Address
6. Telephone Number
7. Marital Status
8. Occupation
9. Age
10.Next Of Kin

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this 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 programme by non-selected
winner or unofficial personnel.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congratulations!! once again.

Yours in service,

Dr. Peter Collins
Award co-ordinator .

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam