joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

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:

Fraud email example:

From: microsoft windows <mmwd04@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 19:56:44 -0600
Subject: MICROSOFT WINNING NOTIFICATION.



MICROSOFT WINNING NOTIFICATION.We happily announce to you the draw of the Euro-Afro Asian Sweepstake:We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today of winners of the MICROSOFT FREE LOTTERY EMAIL PROMOTIONS WINNING PROGRAM held on Friday, 24th of April 2007. Your company or your personal e-mail address, is attached to ticket number 7564-84UK/07, with serial number 3509-RC-07 drew the lucky numbers 46-54-21-93-67, and consequently won the lottery in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of £500,000.00 in Cash credited to file REF: UKFR/72-QC-320972. This is from total prize money Of £5,000,000.00 shared among the Ten (10) international winners in this category. To claim your winning prize, you must first contact the claims department. A copy of this mail has also been sent to our claims department; endeavour to contact this department quoting your file reference. MICROSOFT LOTTERY UNITED KINGDOM PROMOTIONS Email:jjrays@yahoo.com.au Barrister Jenkins RayThis promotion takes place annually and it is sponsored by Sultan of Brunei, Bill Gates of Microsoft and his associates to encourage the use of internet and computers world wide. NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to Quote your reference and batch numbers in all correspondences with this office. Furthermore, should there be any change of your address, do inform us as soon as possible. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning informations confidential till your claims is processed and your winnings delivered to your nominated Bank account through an approved delivering officer appointed specially for this program To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, you are to contact Barrister Jenkins Ray with the followings details below: VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM 1.FULL NAMES: 2.ADDRESS: 3.TELEPHONE NUMBER:4.REFERENCE AND BATCH NUMBER:5.HOW DO YOU FEEL BEEN A WINNER:6.AMOUNT WON: Make sure you Quote your Ticket number in correspondences with us to our designated agent.Congratulations, once more from all members and staffs of this program.Thank you for being part of this promotional program. Our special thanks and gratitude to Sultan of Brunei, Bill Gates of microsoft and all his associates. Please do not reply to this email, contact our fiduciary agent on recieval of this mail,email:jjrays@yahoo.com.au Congratulations again from all our staff for being part of our promotions program. Sincerely, ANDRIAN STOCKMICROSOFT LOTTERY UNITED KINGDOM PROMOTIONS MANAGER. Copyright (c) 2007 Millions Inc.

_________________________________________________________________
Change is good. See what’s different about Windows Live Hotmail.
www.windowslive-hotmail.com/learnmore/default.html?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGLM_HMWL_reten_changegood_0507

Anti-fraud resources: