joewein.de LLC fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter! Free trial for 30 days

"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.

Fraud email example:

From: "Dorothy Cole" <westbound29@zwallet.com> (may be fake)
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 19:10:03 +0100
Subject:

The National Lottery
P O Box 1010
Liverpool, L70 1NL
UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369
WINNING NOTIFICATION:
We happily announce to you the draw (#958) of the UK
NATIONAL LOTTERY,online
Sweepstakes International program held on Saturday
26th ,February 2005.
Your e-mail address at! ! tached to ticket number:
56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the
lucky numbers:
08-14-25-40-43-48-33, which subsequently won
you the lottery in
the 2nd category i.e Match 5 plus bonus
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum
of £107,055 (One hundred and seven thousand,fiffty five
pounds sterling) in cash credited to file
KTU/9023118308/03.
All participants for the online version were selected
randomly from
World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and
extracted from over
100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies
that are listed online.
This promotion takes place weekly.
Please note that your lucky winning number falls
within our European
booklet representative office in Europe as indicated
in your play
coupon. In view of this, your £107,055 (One hundred and seven thousand,fiffty five
pounds sterling)
would be released to you by any of our payment
offices in Europe.
Our European agent will immediately commence the
process to facilitate
the release of your funds as soon as you contact him.
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your
winning information
confidential till your claims is processed and your
money remitted to
you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your
prize.
This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid
double claiming and
unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned.
To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary
agent:
MR. FRANK BOWER.
Email:claims-department@msn.com
You can go to our online result site to confirm the
value of your
winnings and also get a prize breakdown:-
http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/results/results.do
Goodluck from me and members of staff of the UK
NATIONAL LOTTERY.
Yours faithfully,
Dorothy Cole.
Online coordinator for UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
Sweepstakes International Program.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam