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:
  • "microsoft mega jackpot lottery" (no such lottery exists)
  • "microsoft lottery" (no such lottery exists)
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• 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.
  • +27837511411 (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.
  • peterkamu00@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: fred jonas <fredjonas18@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:27:00 +0200
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?CONGRATULATIONS_YOU_HAVE_WON_=A3950,000?=









MICROSOFT MEGA JACKPOT LOTTERYMICROSOFT HOUSE PRESCOT, LONDON E1 8RP. UNITED KINGDOM.

REF NO: M154S/WL07MICRO (LOTTERY) CHIP NO: 9465206

ELECTRONIC MAIL AWARD PROMOTION. MICROSOFT MEGA JACKPOT LOTTERY.

Dear Mr/Mrs/Sir/Madam:

Today, we announce the 10 lucky winners of the MICROSOFT LOTTERY PROGRAM held on 6TH of JUNE 2007. Your personal e-mail address, attached to the Chip Number: 9465206, won in the First lottery category 001. Your email address has therefore won you a total sum £950,000

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of(( £950,000 GBP (Nine hundred and fifty thousand Great Britain Pounds) in cash credited to file MSW/9080118308/02/LA.This is from a total cash prize of £10.000,000 GBP (Ten Million Great Britain Pounds) shared amongst the ten (10) lucky winners.

All participants were selected randomly from 'World Wide Web' site through Microsoft computer ballot system (MCBS) and extracted from over 100,000 individuals and companies. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and money remitted to you in the manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is a part of our precautionary measure to avoid unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements.
Your coupon fails within our African representative in South Africa as indicated in your play coupon.So you are adviced to contact our African agent for the realise of your winning fund on +27-8375-11411


To process your claims you are hereby advice to contact the our Claim Agent in South Africa immediatly with this informations not later than 21 days from the day you get this notification for the realise of your £950,000

NAME:.................................. PRESENT ADDRESS:...............................NATIONALITY:...........................SEX:...................................AGE:...................................PHONE/MOBILE:..........................FAX:...................................OCCUPATION:............................COMPANY:...............................BATCH/WINNING NUMNBER:............................................
Agent Name: PETER KAMU
Email: peterkamu00@yahoo.com
+27-8375-11411
To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your reference/batch numbers in 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,
MR. FRED JONAS
Zonal Coordinator
Microsoft Mega Jackpot Lottery, property of the Microsoft Inc. Copyright® 2007. All Rights reserved.
_________________________________________________________________
Discover the new Windows Vista
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=windows+vista&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam