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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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "claims office" (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 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.
  • claimsagntdavid_smart@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Yahoo Lottery Board <yahbetalot0005@msn.com>
Reply-To: <claimsagntdavid_smart@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:32:20 +0000
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOUR EMAIL ID HAS WON THE SUM OF 350,000.00
(GBP) IN THE NEW YEAR 2009 LOTTERY PROMO.



Yahoo Lottery Board P.O BOX 1010 Liverpool, London United Kingdom RE:WINNING NOTIFICATION This is to inform you that your email address have won a prize money of THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS (350,000.00GBP) in the New Year 2009 Lottery Prize Gift of YAHOO! LOTTERY PROMOTION which is being organized by YAHOO! LOTTERY INC. for the introduction and Launching of our new YAHOO BETA MAIL . Winners of this lottery promotion were randomly selected from different email addresses ranging from yahoomail.com, rediffmail.com, hotmail.com, aolmail.com,
other email addresses and web mails so as to advertise for our new
Yahoo Beta Mail; to encourage internet users to switch over to our new
YAHOO BETA MAIL .Winners of this lottery were drawn and randomly
selected from millions of active Online Email users and were selected
through a electronic ballot system drawn from Microsoft users from
company and individual email addresses users. This results is now officially released to the public after the result was certified by the management and staff of YAHOO!
& MICROSOFT WINDOWS and your email address attached in the B
Category with Batch number: YBM-EBS-390AF, Ref number:
YBM-EBS-719AF,Winning number: YBM-EBS-798AF emerged a winners of THREE
HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS (350,000.00GBP) in the New Year
Lottery Prize Gift of YAHOO! LOTTERY PROMOTION. You are required to contact our claims Agent Mr David Smart for direction on how to claim your prize money. You are to contact our Claims Office with this email contact for claims: claimsagntdavid_smart@hotmail.com You
must claim your Lottery Prize not later than 14 days from date of Draw
Notification in which Prize has been won. Please note in order to avoid
unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your
reference number in all correspondence. Note: Any prize not claimed within this period 14 days) will be forfeited. IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS: Batch number......................YBM-EBS-390AF Ref number........................YBM-EBS-719AF Winning number...............YBM-EBS-798AF These numbers above fall within the United Kingdom
agent's
Location file, you are requested to contact him and send your
Identification Numbers and Personal Information to him for claims of
your prize. You
are therefore advised to send the following information to the claims
agent to facilitate the processing of the transfer of your fund with
the appointed paying bank. Send
your Identification Numbers/Your Personal Information to him so that he
will proceed further for your prize claim immediately: PERSONAL INFORMATION 1. Full name.................. 2. Country.................... 3. Contact Address...... 4. Telephone Number.... 5. Marital Status......... 6. Occupation.............. 7. Age........................... 8. Sex............................ We hope you're enjoying your new Yahoo! Mail account. Now take the next step and claim your money and say thanks to Yahoo! KEEP YOUR WINNING INFORMATION PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL UNTIL YOU RECEIVE YOUR PRIZE MONEY. NOTE
THAT NOBODY OR EVEN THE APPOINTED BANK HAS THE RIGHT TO TOUCH,
DEDUCT/CUT OR GET ACCESS TO YOUR PRIZE MONEY FOR ANY REASON. THEY HAVE
BEEN WARNED STRICTLY!

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam