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:
  • "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • "abuja" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
• 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 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.
  • haroldfayose@yahoo.co.uk

Fraud email example:

From: customer service <electronicpromo_customerservice0@yahoo.ca>
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:54:04 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS YOUR EMAIL HAS WON !!!







Yahoo Award Center

Dear user,

This is to inform you that your email address has won for you a cash prize of three hundred and fifty Thousand dollars ($350.000.00) being for the month of June 2007 ,and is part of the EMAIL LOTTERY PROMOTION ORGANIZED BY YAHOO in conjunction with WINDOW LIVE .

Email addresses of subscribers as well as other internet users are extracted monthly and winners are selected randomly from an automatic electronic raffle draw in which six lucky winners emerges monthly from around the globe.

We therefore wish to notify you of the emergence of your email address as one of the lucky email addresses for the month of June 2007 .You are therefore by this notification expected to redeem your prize.

PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM

Winners shall be paid in accordance with his/her Settlement Center. Yahoo Prize Award must be claimed no later than 15 days from date of Draw Notification. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.

Stated below are your identification numbers:

BATCH NUMBER: MFI/06/APA-43658
REFERENCE NUMBER: 2007234522
PIN: 1207

These numbers fall within the African Location file, you are hereby requested to contact our fiduciary agent in Abuja Nigeria presenting your winning identification numbers to him.


Agent Name:HAROLD FAYOSE

E-Mail: haroldfayose@yahoo.co.uk

You are advised to send the following information to your Claims Agent to facilitate the release of of your fund to you.

1. Full name...............................
2. Country..................................
3. Contact Address.....................
4. Telephone Number.................
5. fax Number............................
5. Marital Status.........................
6. Occupation.............................
7. My Date of birth......................
7. Sex.................................



Congratulations!! once again.

Yours in service,

Mrs. Louisa Charlton





---------------------------------
Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at giving junk email the boot with the All-new Yahoo! Mail

---------------------------------
All new Yahoo! Mail
---------------------------------
Get news delivered. Enjoy RSS feeds right on your Mail page.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam