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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • ",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)
  • "00,000.00" (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)
  • "you are advice to " (this email uses bad English)
• 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.
  • +447024030734 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: (sent from abused email account)
Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 08:12:51 -0500
Subject: YOU HAVE WON

BATCH No: UOS/15/096/IVNL
SERIAL No:472-9768-79
LUCKY No:8-66-97-22-65-5
Amount Won: EUR200,000.00(Euros)

This is to notity you that you have just won the entire sum of EUR200,000.00(Euros) in the online cyber

lotto draws conducted from an exclusive list of 25,000,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate

bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet and so no tickets were

sold. To file in for the processing of your prize winnings, you are advised to contact our Certified and

Accredited claims agent for category "A"winners with the information below:
********************************************************************************************************
Name: David
Email:on-line_repclaims@live.com
Tel: +44-702-403-0734
********************************************************************************************************
Note:You are advice to provide him with the following information: NAME, ADDRESS, OCCUPATION, AGE, SEX,

PHONE NUMBER, and SERIAL NUMBER which is a standard practice just to ensure that we are dealing with the

right individual.

Mrs Diona Martyn RN,MSN
Lottery Coordinator.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam