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 mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
  • +447024035152 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
  • +448717150125 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
• 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.
  • andrew_clayton2005powmf@yahoo.co.uk
  • andrewclayton2005_powmf@yahoo.co.uk

Fraud email example:

From: "catrin walters" <catrin_walters_2002powmf@blueworld.co.za>
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2007 06:34:17 +0200
Subject: Grant Beneficiary


ATTN: Grant Beneficiary,

This is to bring to your information that your email has been randomly selected and approved as a charity grant beneficiary of PRINCESS OF WALES MEMORIAL FOUNDATION (POWMF). You are awarded a grant sum of £2,555,000.00 (Two Million Five Hundred And Fifty Five Thousand Great Britain Pounds) and for further instructions on how you are to put claim to your grant, you are to FORWARD a copy of this notification to our International Grants Officer's email address below as well as give him a call via phone number below:
MR. ANDREW CLAYTON,
INTERNATIONAL GRANTS OFFICER,
GRANT AWARD DEPARTMENT,
Tel: +44 702 403 5152
Fax: +44 8717150125
Email:andrew_clayton2005powmf@yahoo.co.uk
CC:andrewclayton2005_powmf@yahoo.co.uk

Congratulations once again from the entire staff of PRINCESS OF WALES MEMORIAL FOUNDATION and it is our hope that you will appreciate our gesture and judiciously spend your grant.
Sincerely,
Miss Catrin Walters,
PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER,
GRANT AWARD DEPARTMENT,
PRINCESS OF WALES MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
FOUNDATION BUILDING,
59 HOUGHTON STREET,
LONDON, WC2A 2AE,
UNITED KINGDOM.
admin@powm-f.com
UNSUBSCRIBE:
YOU ARE TO KEEP ALL GRANT INFORMATION FROM THE IMMEDIATE PUBLIC AS WE WILL NOT ENTERTAIN CASES OF MULTIPLE CLAIMS PROCESSING OR COMPROMISE THE PRIVACY AND SECURITY OF ALL OUR BENEFICIARIES, THIS IS IN LINE WITH THE DATA PROTECTION ACT OF POWMF.
PRINCESS OF WALES MEMORIAL FOUNDATION IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH BULK EMAIL SENDING/SPAMMING, IF YOU FEEL YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED AS A GRANT BENEFICIARY IN ERROR, KINDLY VISIT THE FOLLOWING LINK TO UNSUBSRIBE FROM OUR GRANT BENEFICIARIES LIST http://www.powmf.8m.net/unsubpage.html

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam