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.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: GRANDE LOTTO <grandelotto@zwallet.com>
Reply-To: grandeclaims@zwallet.com
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 16:10:32 +0100
Subject: Congratulations, You Have Won US$500,000.00


NOTICE...CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
FROM THE OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
GRANDE E-MAIL LOTTERY PROMOTIONS
PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPT
BATCH NO:564908/01/06/GLT
REF. NO: GLT/000341908/019/0009
WINNING NOTIFICATION / FINAL
NOTICE...CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
This is to inform you of the release of the E-MAIL LOTTERY
BALLOT INTERNATIONAL/ WORLD GAMING BOARD. Your name
attached to ticket number 562390 with Serial number
32156 drew the lucky numbers of 13-31-74-82-21-90, which
consequently won the lottery in the 2nd category.
You have therefore been approved for a lump sum payment of
Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ( US$500,000.00 ) only, which is deposited in your favour as beneficiary and
covered with HIGH INSURANCE POLICY. It is important that
keep your winning confidential to avoid people garnering
your information and subsequently making claim with your
winning paraphernalia information, Super lottery
international will decline payment if such irregularity
occurs.
All participants were selected through a computer ballot
system drawn from only Microsoft users from over 20,000.00
companies and 3,000,000.00 individual email addresses and
names from all over the world. To begin your lottery claim,
please contact your claims agent below on or before the 16st of March 2006
CONTACT NAME: FRANK ADAMS
EMAIL: agentfrankadams@netscape.net
It is imperative that you contact your assigned payment
officer within the stipulated period of time. After this date all
unclaimed funds will be included in subsequent promos.
Please note in order to avoid preventable delays and
Complications please remember to quote your reference
number and batch numbers in all correspondence.
Furthermore, should there be any change of address do
inform our agent as soon as possible.
Congratulations once more from our members of staff and
thank you for being part of our promotional program.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Julia Vanolis
Vice President
grandelotto@zwallet.com

Anti-fraud resources: