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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:
  • ",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: "INTERNET ONLINE FREE LOTTERY" <12345678901915@live.com>
Reply-To: verificationdepartment2010@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2008 16:47:37 +0100
Subject: Your email address has won the internet online free lottery


El programa de detecci=F3n de Spam del sistema "dns1.ciberweb.com.mx", ha
identificado este mensaje como "correo basura". A=F9n as=ED, el
mensaje original no se ha borrado para su chequeo, si lo
era, podr=EDa bloquearlo en su programa de correo (cree un "filtro"
a partir de la etiqueta "X-Spam-Score"). Si tiene alguna duda,
contacte con el administrador para m=E1s detalles.

Contenido: We are pleased to inform you of the final announcement
of 01st of october,2008. Your e-mail address has been selected through a
software random selection of email address on the internet and your
email address happens to be one of our lucky winners in our online free
lottery promotion.Your online number is : 56475600545 188 with Serial
number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers:(08)(14)(33)(34)(35)(43) BONUS
BALL (12) which won you £7,000,000 in the second category. Contact
the payment Officer below with the following details. [...]=20

Detalles del an=E1lisis: (5.7 puntos, 5.0 requeridos)

pts regla aplicada descripci=F3n
---- ---------------------- ---------------------------------------
1.0 UNDISC_RECIPS Valid-looking To "undisclosed-recipients"
0.5 ADDR_FREE From Address contains FREE
2.0 FROM_LOCAL_HEX From: localpart has long hexadecimal sequence
2.0 FROM_ALL_NUMS From numeric address (except US/Canada phones)
1.3 FROM_STARTS_WITH_NUMS From: starts with many numbers
-1.4 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP
0.3 MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR URI: Includes a link to a likely spammer email

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam