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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:
  • "million 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)
• 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: "BRITISH LOTTERY" <cjjohnso@oakland.edu>
Reply-To: macurly_clary@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 12:52:27 +0100
Subject: Congratulations!!


BRITISH LOTTERY6/49
P O Box 1010, 3b Olympic Way,
Sefton Business Park,
Aintree, Liverpool, L30 1RD


This is to inform you that you have won the sum of ONE MILLION POUNDS
(£1,000,000.00) Lottery promotion which is organized by BRITISH NATIONAL
LOTTERY INC.BRITISH NATIONAL LOTTERY INC, collects all the email addresses
of persons that are actively online, among the millions that subscribed, we
only select five persons every Month as our winners through electronic
balloting System without the winner applying, we congratulate you for being
one of the persons selected.The process for claiming your winnings has been
made very simple so that by the end of one week at most, you are assured of
having received your cash prize of the sum of £1,000,000.00 Pounds Sterling
and all the legal documents backing your winnings. You are to contact the
BRITISH NATIONAL LOTTERY INC Claims/ verification dept to claim your prize
with the contact information's below:

ONLINE CLAIMS DEPT MANAGER:
Mrs.Mariana Weber
Email: mrs.marianaweber@live.com

Note that you are to provide the Claims dept that will be handling the
delivery of your winning with the required details below to officially
identify you:

These are your identification numbers:
Batch number...................12/25/0340
Reff number.......................BNL/200-26937
Winning number...................YM09788

Claims Requirements:
1. Full Name:
2. Address:
3. Nationality:
4. Date of Birth:
5. Phone:
6. Mobile:
7. Occupation:
8. State of Origin:
9. Country:
10. Sex:

The British National Lottery Prize must be claimed not later than 15 days
from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize was won.
Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited. Please note that
you are not to reply this winning notification rather contact Mrs.Mariana
Weber via email: mrs.marianaweber@live.com you are by all means hereby
advised to keep this whole information confidential until you have been able
to claim your winning.

Congratulations!! Once again.

Yours in service,
Mrs. Patricia A. Wall (PhD)
B.N.L Operation Manager

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam