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:
  • "microsoft lottery" (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "fiduciary agent" (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!

Fraud email example:

From: winnermsn.78@comcast.net
Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:24:00 +0000
Subject: CLICK HERE FOR YOUR PACKAGE

MICROSOFT LOTTERY BOARD
This is to announce to you the result of the MICROSOFT PROMOTIONS held in ENGLAND . Your e-mail address attached to ticket number P63PROMO with serial number 17-008, batch number 076685, lottery ref number MSN/EOY2008 which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category i.e match 5 plus bonus.you have therefore been approved for a lump sum payout of £500,000 (five hundred thousand pounds).
To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent on the email address below:
MR.ANTHONY LOCKE
FIDUCIARY AGENT:
EMAIL:prizeclaimsdepartment@live.com

FULL NAMES:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
AGE:
COUNTRY:
MOBILE NUMBER
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
REF NUMBER:
Yours faithfully
MR. Terrence P Pestea

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam