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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "vat (5%)" (VAT is 17.5% in the UK but 5% in Nigeria)
  • "affidavit " (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
  • "cheque " (Beware of any scheme that involves cashing checks or money orders and then wiring a portion of the funds somewhere - you'll be liable for the entire amount if the checks or money orders turn out to be fake, even after you have received and forwarded cash)
• 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!
• Western Union money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. It is the preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.

Fraud email example:

From: John Clark <webnotice_uklotto_courier@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2006 18:33:42 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Lottery winning notifications





Hello Mr reymond pfeiffler,


Compliments of the day to you.


You been confirmed that you have been officially cleared for payment by the Verifications Dept. at the headquarters of the UK National Lottery.

All your winning documents which includes your certificate and a covering document (Money Laundering protection and Letter of Affidavit for Claims) from the British government,stating that the money was obtained legally through the National Lotto will be sent to you as soon as you meet with any of the option selected.

You can now begin the final step of the claims process, which is the transferring of your cash prize to you. With regards to this, there are three options open to you, you are required to select the most convenient of the three.

The options, together with their associated conditions are presented below:
Option 1:
You can come over to the uk national lottery office in liverpool to claim your winnings if thats okay by you.You will be informed on how to reach us and all the necessary details you need.Or choose from any of our transfer options which is stated below . The uk lottery office address is :
UK NATIONAL LOTTERY OFFICE(payment office)
27 CYPRESS CLOSE NE4 8UJ Liverpool, L70 1NL
ENGLAND,UNITED KINGDOM

Option 2:
Courier your winner cheque to you via any of this channels listed below:
FedEx
Mailing..............................................£205.00
Insurance..........................................£250.00
Vat (5%)...........................................£22.75
TOTAL...............................................£477 .75


UPS
Mailing..............................................£189.00
Insurance..........................................£250. 00
Vat (5%)...........................................£21.95
TOTAL...............................................£460.95

Post office mail
Mailing..............................................£190.00
Insurance..........................................£250.00
Vat (5%)...........................................£19.00
TOTAL...............................................£459.00


Option 3:
The said amount £500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand pounds sterling),will be wired to your bank account via swift bank transfer.

Condition: The cost of COT (commission of transfer) being charged by our transferring bank, which is 0.3% (i.e £1,526.90) of the cash being transferred will be paid by you.

Note that your prize is protected by a hardcover insurance policy, which makes it impossible to deduct any amount from the money before it has been remitted to you. This means that the above charges cannot be deducted from the prize and hence must be provided by you before your prize is transferred to you.Moreover,you are reqiured to send payment charges via western union money transfer,of what ever option you have chosen to our dispatch agent ,who is incharge of sending you your cheque and winning documents.

Also,you are required to send to us as soon as possible,these few information below:
(1) Email us so that we can begin process for your trip(if you have choosen option 1)
(2.)The delivery option which you've choosen.
(3.)Your bank details(if you have chosen option 3, bank transfer.)
(4.)Attach a scanned copy of either your driver's licence, international passport (photo page) or any other legally identifying document and send to us for identification purposes.

Having done this,you would be given proper guidelines on how to go about sending the payment to the our courier security affiliate in London.


Congratulations.


Mr. John Clark.
Acorn Forwarding Services LTD.



---------------------------------
Try the all-new Yahoo! Mail . "The New Version is radically easier to use" – The Wall Street Journal

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam