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.

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "fiduciary agent" (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.
  • mr_tony_adams@telkom.net

Fraud email example:

From: "BRITISH LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS" <mrselizabeth_info_office@msn.com>
Reply-To: mr_tony_adams@telkom.net
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 01:49:02 +0000
Subject: YOUR LOTTERY WINNING NOTIFICATION

                                    BRITISH LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS,
                                    28 TANFIELD ROAD CROYDON,
                                    LONDON,
                                    UNITED KINGDOM.

Ref #: UK/0212/EA

Batch #:L/0034

 

Attention.YOUR WINNING NOTIFICATION.

 

We happily bring to your notice the results of the British Lottery International programme held on the 22nd October, 2005 in London. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 02/71 drew the lucky numbers: 8-18-25-36-42-44,which subsequently won you a prize in the 2nd category . You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of GBP£500,000.00 ( Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain pounds) in cash credited to file ACC/07/00114/EA.The numbers above are yourbatch and reference numbers.please keep these numbers confidential.

 

This prize is from a total cash prize of GBP£20,000,000.00 (Twenty Million Great Britain pounds) shared amongst the first Fifty (50) lucky winners in this grand category "B".

 

All participants were selected randomly from various websites on 'The World Wide Web, www' through a computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 companies. This promotion bonanza takes place annually. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your prize remitted to you as required in this grand category "B" terms and conditions of claims. This is a part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming which could leads to  abuse of this programme by non winners.

Please be advised as follows: To file for your claim, kindly contact
our fiduciary agent with the below details for processing of your funds claims:

 

********************************************************
Name: Mr. Tony Adams.
E-mail:mr_tony_adams@telkom.net
Chief confidential secretary, Payment and Release order Department,
Trans Atlantic S.A London, United Kingdom.
********************************************************

Note that, all claims processes and clearance procedures must be duly
completed early to avoid impersonation and or double claiming.

Congratulations once more from all members and staff of this program.

 

Yours Faithfully,

Mrs. Elizabeth Terry.

Lottery Co-ordinator.
Announcer.
For:  The British Lottery International.

 

--

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam