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:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
  • "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • ",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 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.
  • +27731449939 (South Africa, prepaid mobile phone)
• 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.
  • j.kawe@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: MARIA STEVE <mariasteve_59@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:38:52 +0200
Subject: RE:LUCKY LOTTERY WINNERS' NOTIFICATION



FROM THE DESK OF THE PROMOTIONS MANAGER,
MR.ADAM KARABO.
EUROPEAN/UK/S.A.UNION INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS
BID SOUTH AFRICA 2010 WORLD CUP LOTTERY
AWARD DEPARTMENT.UNITED KINGDOM/SOUTH AFRICA
(Customer Services)

Ref: FER/4690/6103/24
Batch: 245-379-482
Winning No: 2-9-22-23-24-30

Dear Sir/Madam,

WINNING NOTIFICATION

We happily announce to you the draw of South African 2010 World Cup Bid Lottery Award International programs held in U.K. Your "email address" was attached to ticket number; 12324277 serial number 6663817262. This batch draws the lucky numbers as follows -9-22-23-24-30 bonus number 2, which consequently won you the lottery in the second category.


You hereby have been approved lump sum pay of £520,000.00 (FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND BRITISH POUNDS) file Ref: FER/8309/1209/26 from the total cash prize of 18,000,000.00 shared amongst ten lucky winners based on their category.

All participants "email addresses" were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand names from Canada,Australia,United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceanic as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually before 2010.
This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by some multinational companies and some other EU personalities as part of their social responsibility to promote South Africans 2010 World Cup Award.

Please you are advised to file for your claim immediately through our Agent in South Africa MR. JONATHAN KAWE for your prize money and to remit your winning fund to your account. Call him on the phone immediately you received this message because you stand a risk of loosing the prize if you fail to claim within a month from the day you received this notification.

His contact details are as follows:

NAME: MR. JONATHAN KAWE
(CLAIM AGENT).
TEL: +27 73 1449939
E-mail: j.kawe@yahoo.com


Call him on the phone immediately you receive this mail.

For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid dual claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this program by non-participant or unofficial personnel.

Congratulations once again on your winnings!!!

Best Regards
MARIA STEVE
Co-coordinator
EUROPEAN.UK .SOUTH AFRICAN UNION INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS.

Yours faithfully,
MARIA STEVE.
Online coordinator
EUROPEAN/UK/S.A UNION INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS,
Open 7 days 7am-7pm.
_________________________________________________________________
Connect to the next generation of MSN Messenger 
http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/default.aspx?locale=en-us&source=wlmailtagline

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam