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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
  • "uk national lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
• 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!

Fraud email example:

From: uk lottery <claimofficer71296@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 22:04:48 +0100 (BST)
Subject: FILL IN THE ABOVE INFORMATION!!!


DEAR WINNER,
I UNDERSTAND YOUR PLEAD DUE TO THE ON GOING SCAM ALL OVER THE WORLD BUT WHAT YOU HAVE TO KNOW IS THAT THIS IS A LEGITIMATE UNITED KINGDOM LOTTERY PROMOTION AND YOU ARE AMONG ONE OF OUR WINNERS WE ADVICE YOU TO FILL IN THE ABOVE INFORMATION SO THAT YOUR PRIZE WILL GET TO YOU ON TIME.
Thanks for your responds but you need to understand the fact that you won an amount of 1,500,000 pounds so all we need from you in this stage is just some of your personal information that we will need in preparing your winning certificate, though you might have received so many of this kind of emails telling you that you won but you still do not believe.

Well if i may inform you that our promotion is only done annually and this is the only one you will receive from the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY conducted once a year. So at this junction you will have to provide some of your personal information so that we can give you the next step to take before your claims will be delivered to you by any of your delivery choices.

So do well to provide some of your personal information for there is nothing we will do with them apart from using it for your benefit. We are real just give us a chance. PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING
1 FULL NAME
2 AGE
3 SEX
4 DATE OF BIRTH
5 OCCUPATION
6 COUNTRY
7 NATIONALITY
8 PHONE NUMBER
9 FAX IF ANY
10 DRAW/REF/BATCH/TICKET NUMBER
Yours faithfully,
Mr. John Smith



---------------------------------
Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam