419 scam: williams@williamsjohn60.orangehome.co.uk FROM: MR. JAMES WILLIAMS,

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

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:

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.
- +31630442883 (Netherlands, 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.
- euloagencybvzzz@aim.com

Fraud email example:

From: williams@williamsjohn60.orangehome.co.uk
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 16:00:38 +0100 (CET)
Subject: FROM: MR. JAMES WILLIAMS,

FROM: MR. JAMES WILLIAMS,
E.U ONLINE LOTTERY.
E.U ONLINE LOTTERY AND GAMING CORPORATION,
MONTH OF DECEMBER LOTTERY,
WINNING NUMBER: EOL/342/002/100
OUR DEAR WINNER,
YOU WON THE SUM OF (FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND EURO) FROM E.U ONLINE LOTTERY AND GAMING CORPORATION. THE WINNING TICKET WAS SELECTED FROM A DATA BASE OF INTERNET E-MAIL USERS, FROM WHICH YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS CAME OUT AS THE WINNING COUPON.
WE THEREBY CONTACT YOU TO CLAIM YOUR WINNING AMOUNT QUICKLY AS THIS IS A MONTHLY E.U ONLINE LOTTERY. FAILURE TO CLAIM YOUR WINNING WILL RESULT INTO THE REVERSION OF THE WINNING SUM TO OUR FOLLOWING MONTH E.U ONLINE LOTTERY. (EXPIRING DATE, 15TH OF DECEMBER). PLEASE CONTACT OUR APPROVED AGENT FOR YOUR REGION WITH YOUR WINNING NUMBER.
E.U ONLINE LOTTERY AGENCY.
MRS. ELIZABERT MOORE.
DIRECTOR OF WINNING CLAIMS DEPARTMENT.
TEL: 31-630-442-883
E-MAIL: euloagencybvzzz@aim.com
REGARDS,
MR. JAMES WILLIAMS.
DIRECTOR OF E.U ONLINE LOTTERY.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam