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: "British Lottery" <btlinternational_02@msn.com>
Reply-To: henryjames007@myway.com
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 02:35:51 +0000
Subject: Winning Notification: Contact Your Claim's Agent Now

British Lottery Headquarters
Customer Service
28 TANFIELD ROAD,
CROYDON,
LONDON.
Ref: BTL/491OXI/04,Batch: 12/25/0304
January 2006.

Dear prize winner,

We happily announce to you the draw of the British Lottery International
programs held on the 25th of January 2006 in London. Your e-mail address
attached to ticket number: 564 75600545-188 with Serial number 5388/02 drew
the lucky numbers: 31-6-26-13-35-7,which subsequently won you the lottery in
the 2nd category.

You are therefore, been approved to claim a total sum of £1,432,252.00(One
million, Four hundred and thirthy two thousand, two hundred and fifty two
Great British Pounds) in cash credited to file RPC/9080118308/04.This is
from a total cash prize of £71 Million Pounds, shared amongst the first
Fifty (50) lucky winners in this category.
This year Lottery Program Jackpot is the largest ever for British Lottery.
The estimated £125 million jackpot would be the sixth-biggest in U.K.
history. The biggest was the £208 million jackpot that went to two winners
in a May 2000 drawing of The Big Game, Mega Millions' predecessor.

Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our European booklet
representative office in Europe as indicated in our play coupon. In view of
this, your £1,432,252.00(One million, Four hundred and thirthy two
thousand,two hundred and fifty two Great British Pounds) would be released
to you by our affiliate bank in London. Our agent will immediately commence
the process to facilitate the release of your funds to you as soon as you
make contact with him All participants were selected randomly from World
Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000
companies.

This promotion takes place annually. 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 a part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and
unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements.Please be
warned.To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent with the
below details for processing of your claims.

AGENT: Mr. Henry James
Email: henryjames007@myway.com

To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your
reference/batch numbers in any correspondences with us or our designated
agent.Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this program.

Thank you for being part of our promotional lottery program.

Sincerely,
Sir. John Barckley
Zonal Coordinator.



--

Anti-fraud resources: