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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "vittorio foundation" (not involved with lotteries)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "please endeavor to " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "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.
  • thedonationsoffice1@yahoo.ie

Fraud email example:

From: micro soft <gainers017@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:36:35 -0400
Subject: NOTIFICATION FOR CASH AID DEVELOPMENT



NOTIFICATION FOR CASH AID DEVELOPMENTFondazion Di Vittorio > ITALY.http://www.fondazionedivittorio.itATTENTION GRANT BENEFICIARY:
The Foundazion di Vittorio, would like to notify you that you have been chosen through electronic balloting of email address by the board of trustees as one of the final recipients of aGrant/Donation cash aid of US $950,000.00 (Ninehundred and fifty thousand United states Dollars) as charity donations/aid from the Vittorio Foundation. The processing of your grant/donation cash aid as this will ensure efficiency in our services, mean while you will be given your donation pin number and payment-release-order-form, which you will use in collecting the funds. Please endeavor to quote your Qualification numbers (N-222-6747, E-900-56) in all discussions.1.Grant name...................2.Grant Address................3.Grant Age....................4.Grant Telephone Numbers......5.Grant Marital Status.........6.Grant Sex....................7.Grant Next Of Kin............8.Grant Zip Code...............9.Grant Occupation.............10.Grant State:................11.Grant Country...............12.Grant Nationality...........CONTACT DETIALS BELOW:THE INTERNATIONAL CLAIMS OFFICER.===========================================CONTACT NAME: Riccardo VaraniniEMAIL:thedonationsoffice1@yahoo.ie=========================================== Yours faithfully,Mr. Gianni Mattioli.(Foundezion officer)
_________________________________________________________________
Make every IM count. Download Windows Live Messenger and join the i’m Initiative now. It’s free.  
http://im.live.com/messenger/im/home/?source=TAGWL_June07

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam