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"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.

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Fraud email example:

From: "Mr.Hank Wells" <larryadams@incamail.com> (may be fake)
Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 13:09:30 -0700
Subject: Congratulations !!! Lottery Winnings

KS INTERNATIONAL LOTTO
BURDENSTRAAT 21B
2053 DS AMSTERDAM.

AWARD NOTIFICATION /PROCESSING ADVICE:

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today, 7th May 2004 of winners of the SCIENTIFIC
GAME PROMO LOTTERY; THE NETHERLANDS INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM held yesterday on the 6th May 2 004.
Your email address attached to ticket number 16-19-34-37-47023-56678230954; with serial number
5073-11 and batch number 555-5-ksl-04 drew the lucky numbers, and consequently won the lottery in the 1st category. You have therefore been approved of a lump sum pay out of EURO 1,200.000.00 (ONE MILLION TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND EUROS) credited to file REF NO. SGIL/763276/03. This is from total prize money of EURO 24,000,000.00 shared among the TWELVE international winners in 1st -3rd categories.

All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 25,000 company email
addresses and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from Australia, New Zealand, America, Europe, North America and Asia as part of International Promotions Program, which is conducted annually.


Your fund is now in custody of a financial/Securities company. Due to the mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this award strictly confidential until your claim has been processed and your money remitted to your account.
To receive your claim, please contact your file/claim officer:
Mr. Larry Adams
FOREIGN SERVICE MANAGER
GLOBAL SECURITIES.
AMSTERDAM, NL
E.MAIL: larryadams@incamail.com
TEL: 00 316 151 06463

All prize money must be claimed in ten working days.
After this date, all funds will be returned as unclaimed.
NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference
and batch numbers in every one of your correspondences with your agent.
Furthermore, should there be any change of your address, do inform your claims agent as soon as
possible.
Congratulations once again from our team of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.
Note: Anybody under the age of 18 is AUTOMATICALY DISQUALIFIED.
Please include your private telephone and fax numbers while replying.


Sincerely,
Hank Wells
Lottery Coordinator




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