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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • ",000,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• 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.
  • johnkwakuprivatemail@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: fra.james@zipmail.com.br
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:27:00 +0100
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?LUCKY=20WINNER?=

Western Canada Lottery Corporation
Corporate Communications
6910-50th Avenue
Postal Bag 649
Stettler, AB T0C 2L0
www.lottolore.com

Winning Notification

Dear lucky winner,

We happily announce to you the result of the National Lotto 6/49 lottery
draws held on sat July 6, 2007 , in Essex United Kingdom and Ontario , Canada
. All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through
computer draws system and extracted from over 10,000,00 companies and personal
e-mail addresses. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: B9564 7560
4545 100 with serial number 046560 drew the winning numbers 3-19-20-23-35-38
a Bonus 48 You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$2,000,000.00
in cash credited to file EAAL/9080118308/04.

Please note that your lucky winning numbers fall within our African booklet
representative office in Ghana as indicated in your play coupon. In view
of this, your US$2,000,000.00 would be released to you by a Bank in Africa
.

Our African agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the
release of your funds as soon as you contact their office. To file for your
claim, please contact our corresponding agent in Africa immediately you
read this message for quick and urgent release of your fund, contact information
is as follow: -

Name: Mr. John Kwaku
Email:johnkwakuprivatemail@yahoo.com

Congratulations once more from all members and staff of this program to
all that have successfully won this competition and thank you for being
part of our promotional lottery program.

Yours Sincerely,
Mr.Frank James

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam