joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
 Free trial for 30 days
   jwSpamSpy
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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "Mac . B. Chris" <cybercafe40@yahoo.co.in> (may be fake)
Reply-To: mac_lottery2003@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 04:19:11 +0200
Subject:

The U.K. National Lottery
12 Bridge Street,
Staines Middlesex TW18 4TP
United Kingdom.
Ref: LSUK/2031/8161/04
Batch: R3/A312-59

WINNING NOTIFICATION:
We happily announce to you the draw (#894) of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY,online
Sweepstakes International program held on Saturday september 4th,2004.
Your e-mail address attached to ticket number:
56475600545 188 with Serial
number 5368/02 drew the lucky
numbers:1-3-11-16-23-36(22), which
subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category i.e match 5 plus bonus.
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £1,448,478 (One million,four hundred and Forty Eight Thousand and four Hundred and seventy-eight pounds sterling) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03.
This is from a total cash prize shared amongst the Ten (10) lucky winners in this category i.e Match 5 plus bonus.

All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies that are listed online.
This promotion takes place weekly.
Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our European booklet representative office in Europe as indicated in your play coupon.
In view of this, your £1,448,478 (One million,four hundred and Forty Eight Thousand and four Hundred and seventy-eight pounds sterling) would be released to you by any of our payment offices in Europe.


To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent:

Mr. Luis A. Rivas
Email: united_lottery@yahoo.co.uk
Provide him with the information below:
1. Name
2. Address
3. Occupation
4. Marital status
5. Age
6. Telephone and Fax numbers.


For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your
money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize.
This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program.

PLEASE BE WARNED.

Goodluck from me and members of staff of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY.

Yours faithfully,
Mac . B. Chris
Online coordinator for UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
Sweepstakes International Program.


Anti-fraud resources: