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:
  • "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "claims 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!
• 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.
  • cherryandy2@myway.com

Fraud email example:

From: "cashoutlottery@oland.com" <cherryandy2@myway.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 22:34:17 -1200
Subject: Winner

CASHOUT PROMO LOTTERY,
2345 Tottenham Court Road London.
Dear Winner,
This is to notify you of your winning of our internet lotto
draw.All email addresses were randomly selected from a batch
of
60,000,000 emails address from the internet and yours
emerged as one of
the wihning email addresses.Consequently,you have therefore
won
yourself the sum of US$5,000,000.00 ( US$5 million )
only.Your winning
email
ticket and lotto code number respectively are:
(1) email ticket number: FL754/22/76
(2) lotto code number: FL09622SP
Please contact the underlisted claim agent as soon as
possible forthe
immediate release of your winnings:

CONTACT:
Claims agent
Cherry Andy
Email Addres:
cherryandy2@myway.com
Congratulations

Sincerely,
Wolfgang
Hinch
Promotions Director,
The CASHOUT Lotto company

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam