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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
  • "please endeavor to " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "million united states dollars" (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)
  • ",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)
• 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.
  • +31626439087 (Netherlands, prepaid mobile phone)
• 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.
  • gfletcher_3@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Association of European Charity Foundations." <info@cfd.com>
Reply-To: <gfletcher_3@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 13:36:14 -0400
Subject: NOTIFICATION FOR CACH AID.

Foundation's Officer,
Association Of European
Charity Foundations,
Amsterdam,The Netherlands.

Dear Sir/Madam,

NOTIFICATION FOR CASH AID.

This is to notify you that you have been chosen By the Board of trustees of the above International charity organization branched in the Netherlands as one of the final recipients of a Cash Grant/Donation for
your own personal, education and business development.

The International Registered Foundation is named after over 5 top company owners put together. The charitable foundation was reported bythe business newspaper, the Economist between the year 2000-2007 to be technically one of the world's wealthiest charity foundation- worth
billions of US$ - but its primary purpose is, by some, believed to be BRINGING INNOVATIONS IN HEALTH AND LEARNING TO THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY. George
Soros is chairman of the foundation. Having been rated as the founder and chairman of a network of foundations,the foundation has decided to randomly select email addresses that would benefit from this year's
donation/award.

Association Of European Charity Foundations in conjunction with the European Union, is giving out a yearly donation of One Hundred Million United States Dollars as specific Donations/Grants to 50 lucky
international recipients worldwide in different categories for their educational pursuit, health care,personal Business development and uplift of their
enviroment. Thesefunds arefreely given to you to use for your business educational and personaldevelopment, and at least 30% to be used by you to develop a part of
your enviroment, as this is a yearly program, which is a measure ofuniversal development strategy, and eradication of poverty.

The idea of this donation is that within ten years from now, there will be notable richness amongst manyunusual people around the world.Based on the random selection exercise of internet service providers(ISP)and millions
of Super market cash invoices worldwide, you were selected among the lucky recipients to receive the award sum of US$2,000,000.00(Two Million United States Dollars) as charity donations/aid from the Association Of European Charity Foundations and the UNO in accordance with the enabling act of Parliament. Note that, your email was selected from either the internet,or a Shop's cash invoice around your area in
which you might have purchased something from.

You are required to expeditiously Contact the Executive Secretary below for qualification documentation and processing of your claims, from Monday through Sunday. On contact with this officer, you'll be given your
donation pin number which you will use in collecting the funds. Please endeavor to

quote your Qualification numbers (N-222-6747, E-900-56) in all discussions.

***********************************
Executive Secretary,
Mr.Gerald Fletcher
Tel:+316 264 39087
Fax:+318 474 54671
Email: gfletcher_3@yahoo.com.hk
**********************************

Please note that this donations/Grants are strictly administered by European Union" under delegated powers from the UNO. you are by all means hereby advised to keep this whole information confidential until you have been able to collect your donation, as there have been many cases of double and unqualified claim, due to beneficiaries informing third parties about his/her donation.

Finally, all funds should be claimed by their respective beneficiaries, not later that 10 days after notification, as failure to do so will be to that particular beneficiary cancelled and its donation reserved for next years recipients.

On behalf of the Board kindly accept our warmest congratulations.

Yours Sincerely,
Mrs.Susan Wallace
(Foundation Officer)



--

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam