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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "MR JOHN WATTS" <john_watts2@virgilio.it> (may be fake)
Reply-To: john_watts03@excite.com
Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 00:58:41 -0800
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!

South Australia Lotteries,
23 Rundle Mall, Adelaide,
South Australia.
(South Australia Lottories is an affiliate of Overseas
Subscriber Agents).
Arena Complex 14 Donegall Square West, United Kingdom.
From: Susan Console
(Lottery Coordinator)

Sir/madam,

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the South Australia Lotteries Winners International
programs held on the 7th, October, 2005. Your e-mail address attached to ticket #:MUHA00903228100
with prize # 778009/UK drew €1,000,000.00 which was first in the 2ndclass of the draws.you are to
receive €1,000,000.00 (One Million Euros). Because of mix up in cash pay-outs, we ask that you keep
your winning information confidential until your money (€1,000,000.00) has been fully remitted to you
by our accredited pay-point bank. This measure must be adhere to avoid loss of your cash prize -
winners of our cash prizes are advised to adhere to these instructions to forestall the abuse of this
program by other participants. It's important to note that this draws were conducted formally, and
winners are selected through an internet ballot system from 60,000 individual and companies e-mail
addresses - the draws are conducted around the world through our internet based ballot system. The
promotion is sponsored and promoted by South Australia lotteries.

We congratulate you once again. We hope you will use part of it in our next draws; the jackpot winning
is €85million. Remember, all winning must be claimed not later than 20 days. After this date all unclaimed
cash prize will be forfeited and included in the next sweepstake. Please, in order to avoid unnecessary
delays and complications remember to quote personal and winning numbers in all correspondence with us.

Congratulations once again from all members of South Australia Lotteries. Thank you for being part of our
promotional program.

For immediate release of your cash prize to you, please kindly contact our Paying Bank
( Chartered Finance & Securities Den Haag.)

Send them the following:
(i). Your names,
(ii) Contact telephone and fax numbers
(iii) Contact Address
(iv) your winning numbers
(v) Quote amount won.

Contact person: Mr. felix peterson
E-mail: charteredfs@netscape.net
Tel: +31 643 178 404
Congratulations once again.
Yours in service,
Susan Console


Anti-fraud resources: