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:

• 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.
  • m_claimagent2005@yahoo.co.uk

Fraud email example:

From: "Mark Jackson" <m_lottery2005@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: m_claimagent2005@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 11:09:41 +0000
Subject: CONGRATULATION!!!!!!!

REF NUMBER: OSL/746/029/03
BATCH NUMBER: AT-040-SB06-03

We are pleased to inform you, THAT AS A RESULT OF OUR RECENT CHRISTMAS
LOTTERY PROMOTION DRAWS HELD on the 17th of October 2005.

Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 27522465896-532 with serial
number 652-662 drew lucky numbers 7-14-18-23-31-45 which consequently won in
the
2nd category. you have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of
1,000,000 (DOLLARS) (ONE MILLION DOLLARS).

Note that All participants in this lottery program have been selected
randomly through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 companies
and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from all search engines and web
sites. This promotional program takes place every year, and is promoted and
sponsored by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei, bill gates of
microsoft inc and other corporate organisations. this
is to encourage the use of the internet and computers worldwide.

To enable us file in your name for payment,please do
provide the following informations:

1,YOUR FULL NAME: ................
2,YOUR SEX:..................
3,YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBER .........
4,YOUR FAX NUMBER:...............
5,YOUR OCCUPATION:....................
6,YOUR COMPANY: ................
7,YOUR AGE:..........
8,Country:..........................
9,YOUR REF NUMBER:............
10,ADDRESS & POSTAGE............


You are to send all the infomation to the lottery office.

E-mail: m_claimagent2005@yahoo.co.uk

Congratulations once again.

THANKS
LOTTERY OFFICE.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam