419 scam: "POWERBALL LOTTO. BV" <info@hotmail.com> Your Email Has Won

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims office" (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 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.
- +447017039518 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
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.
- laurensmithss@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "POWERBALL LOTTO. BV" <info@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: laurensmithss@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:45:40 +0200
Subject: Your Email Has Won

--
POWERBALL LOTTO. BV
POWERBALL-WHEEL E-GAME 2011

Dear Consolation Prize Winner,

NOTICE OF CONSOLATION PRIZE WINNING

This email confirms that you have been notified of by the POWERBALL
INTERLOTTO BV of the Netherlands of your email lottery winning for 2011
Powerball Lotto-Wheel E-game held on the 1/04/11. We wish to congratulate
you on the selection of your email coupon number which was selected among
the 4 lucky consolation prize winners.

Your email ID identified with Coupon No.PBL2348974321 and was selected by
Electronic Random Selection System (ERSS) with entries from the 50,000
different email addresses enrolled for the Lotto-Wheel E-game.

Your email ID included among the 50,000 different email addresses where
submitted by our partner international email provider companies.

For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information
confidential till your claims is processed and money remitted to you in the
manner you deem fit to claim your prize.

This is a part of our precautionary measure to avoid unwarranted abuse of
this program by some unscrupulous elements.

Prize Ref No.: PBL/CN/6654/CP

Lottery Group: Consolation Prize Group

Prize Amount: US $500,000 Five Hundred Thousand Dollars Only

You are required to file claims for your lottery prize winning by
contacting the Lottery Claims Processing Officer with your winning
information provided above.

Lottery Claims Officer:

Name: Mrs Lauren Smith

Email; laurensmithss@hotmail.com

Tel: +4470-1703-9518

Tel: +4470-1703-9517

Congratulations once again from all our staffs on your consolation prize
winning, we hope you will partake in our forth coming Power ball
Lotto-Wheel Email-games.

Yours truly,

Mr. Kelvin Martins,
(Lottery Coordinator)
(Online Promo Programme).

Powerball Promo selected winner april 1st 2011 please reply your mail to
( laurensmithss@hotmail.com )

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam