joewein.de LLC fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter! Free trial for 30 days

"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
• "Is that email a scam?" - Check it online here!
  
• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
• Support our efforts to stop scams!
  
• How to report 419 spam to us
• What can you do when you receive 419 spam
  
  
• Spam archive, Daily index
  

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.

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.
• The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "euro afro american lottery promotion"
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "million united states dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• 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.
  • +27721422991 (South Africa, prepaid mobile phone)
• 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.
  • agent18@pnetmail.co.za (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: south_african_2010@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2006 22:10:11 +0200
Subject: 2010 lottery winner.

Euro Afro American Lottery promotion
South African

From the desk of: Mrs Sandra Nzama



Dear Sir\Madam

CONGRATULATIONS FOR YOUR WINNING:

We happily announce to you the draw of South African 2010 World cup Bid
lotteryAward International programs held in Zurich, Switzerland. Your
e-mail address attached to ticket number: B9665 75604546 199 with !
Serial
number 97560 drew the winning:60/84/27/17/36, which subsequently won
you
the lottery award in the 2nd
category. Your name have therefore been approved to claim a total sum
of
US$2,000.000.00(Two million United States Dollars) in cash credited to
file
KPC/9030108308/03 .This is from a total cash prize of US $ 8,000,000.00
(Eightmillion United States dollars) shared among the first 4 lucky
winners in thiscategory world-wide.

Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our lottery
booklet
representative office in South Africa as indicate in the play coupon.
In
view of
this, your US $2,000.000 ( Two Million United States Dollars ) would be
released to
through the assistance of our agent in South Africa immediately he
commence the
process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you
contacted him.

All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site
through
computer
draw system and extracted from over 100,000,00 companies and individual
emails
address.

The lottery programe took place to promote South Africa's 2010 world
cup
award. For
security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning
information confidential till your claims are 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
by some unscrupulous elements.

Please you are advised to file for your claim immediately through our
agent MR JAMES
SMITH
immediately you received this message because you stand a risk of
loosing
the prize
if you fail to claim within a month
from the day you received this notification.His e-mail address is:
agent18@pnetmail.co.za
Tel:+27721422991

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Sandra Nzama

(Zonal cordinator)

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam