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:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
• 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!

Fraud email example:

From: Baily Brett <baily.brett9@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <ashfordm6130@yahoo.ca>
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:27:30 +0100
Subject: Prize Notification



Dear Sir/Madam:

Re: Prize Notification

As a solicitor for an International Promotion Organization/Prize Award, I write to inform you of the result of winners, which was announced on the 17th September, 2007. On this result, it was discovered that you have been randomly selected in this year lotto promotion carried out by the Ashford International Promotion. The nature of this lotto is to expound the Ashford programme for charity of which every winner must pledge allegiance to the purpose of this lotto, that is, to help the charity.

In this draw, you were attached to a winning number AIP10346328 and a ticket number 05562 with a serial number 034 which place you on a Third Winning Category. In this category, you have therefore being approved for a win sum of £3 Million (Three Million G.B.P) only. Since this promotion cannot reach all and sundry, the method that was adapted is through the Computerization of email addresses whether for the rich or the poor then through the method of Permutation and Combination, winners are selected. Therefore don't be surprised because you know that you did not at anytime played our lottery personally, instead it is the mother-luck on your side that made your name and email appeared for the draw.

We have been on this for the past 28 years and each past winners are deleted from our winning list so that they will not appear for second time. The purpose of this as explained before is to help charity, therefore, if it is not possible for you to help charity in your area with the sum of £1 Million out of £3 Million won then you will not be given this prize. But if you have the needy at heart and promise this organization that you will help the needy in your area with £1 Million, respond to this immediately and the process in which your prize will be transferred to you will be communicated back to you. The head office of this Organization is in Canada.

Your immediate response and confirmation for accepting this prize is awaited.

Sincerely yours,

Baily Brett
_________________________________________________________________
Discover the new Windows Vista
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=windows+vista&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam