joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

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.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

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:

Fraud email example:

From: "THE BMW AUTOMOBILE COMPANY." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrmartinssmith@admin.in.th>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:51:54 -0700
Subject: Reference Number: BMW:2551256003/23 !!!CONGRATULATION YOU ARE A WINNER!!!.

THE INTERNATIONAL AWARD
PROMOTION DEPARTMENT OF
THE BMW AUTOMOBILE COMPANY.
22 Garden Close, Stamford, Lincs, PE9 2YP, London
United Kingdom.
Tel No:+447-045-759-310
      :+447-045-786-638
Fax No:+447-005-921-490.
 
                    Reference Number: BMW:2551256003/23
                   !!!CONGRATULATION YOU ARE A WINNER!!!.
 
 
The Board of Directors, members of staff and the International Award
Promotion Department of BMW Automobile Company, wishes to
congratulate you on your success as the STAR PRIZE WINNER in this years' BMW Automobile
International Award Promotion (IAP) held on 16th March 2011, in London,
England. This makes you the proud owner of a brand new BMW YEAR:
2010, MODEL:
 
V12 Sport Saloon car and a cash prize of ?500,000.00 GBP (Five Hundred
Thousand Great British pounds). The car comes with a special BMW Insurance
Cover for one whole year, that is, till the next promotion in 2011.
 
It also comes with a one year warranty and FREE repairs at any BMW AUTOMOBILE
depot or service station worldwide.
 
HOW YOU WON
We Select email addresses of people that are active online, among the Billions that are subscribed to email addresses worldwide, such as, AOL, Hotmail, Optusnet, Bigpond, Yahoo, Gmail, Google and including private domain users and also being a Microsoft user, your email qualify you in entering the draw. Ten email addresses are been selected in every quarter of the year.Each email address was attached to a ticket number and your email address with ticket number: 5647600545188 and serial number:BMWP/556543450906 was randomly selected as the star prize winner amongst otherconsolation prize winners.
 
PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
You are to contact your Claims Agent with immediate effect to facilitate the protocol of your winning prize before the date of Claim, Winners Shall be paid in accordance with his/her location. Prize must be claimed not later than 15 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited. To begin your claim please contact our licensed and accredited agent assigned to you.
 
[BMW CLAIM DEPARTMENT MANAGER]
MR.MARTINS SMITH,
EMAIL:mrmartinssmith@admin.in.th
 
  Do email the above Claims Administrator, with the claims requirements below. To avoid unnecessary delay, they are needed to proceed.
 
VERIFICATION FORM:
1.) FULL NAME:________________________________________________
2.) AGE:______________________________________________________
3.) SEX:______________________________________________________
4.) ADDRESS:_________________________________________________
5.) ZIP/POSTAL CODE:__________________________________________
6.) STATE/PROVINCE:___________________________________________
7.) COUNTRY:_________________________________________________
8.) PHONE:___________________________________________________
9.)OCCUPATION/POSITION:______________________________________
10.) COMPANY:________________________________________________
11.) EMAIL ADDRESS:__________________________________________
12.) TICKETNUMBER:___________________________________________
13.) SERIAL NUMBER:__________________________________________
 
Congratulations once more, and keep trusting BMW Automobile for top quality
automobiles.
 
THE BMW INTERNATIONAL AWARD PROMOTION
COPYRIGHT ©2010/2011. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 

Anti-fraud resources: