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: "Mr. Johnson" <jj_microsoft@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:47:25 +0100 (BST)
Subject: MICROSOFT ONLINE PROMOTION.



MICROSOFT HOUSE, LONDON
24 MICHAEL GREGORY STREET
LONDON WC2N 4ER.UK.











ATTN: LUCKY WINNER

This is in receipt of your mail.Your email was luckily drawn by a computer balloting system as one of our winners in our experimental lottery bonanza from the prestigous MICROSOFT ONLINE PROMOTION.Thus, making you the winner of the sum of 1,000,000.00GBP (One Million Great British Pounds Sterlings).

Please complete the form below with correct information and email back to us with a return email so that we can have a precise and comprehensive record of our winners.

To proceed with your claims, you would be required to fill the Verification Form below completely and return back to us immediately.

THIS SHOULD BE COMPLETED BY THE BENEFICIARY OF THE STATED FUND, FOR VERIFICATION BEFORE TRANSFER.

BENEFICIARY FULL NAMES......................

NATIONALITY...................................

RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.........................


DATE OF BIRTH................................


SEX...............................................

TEL./FAX NUMBER....................................



EMAIL ADDRESS.................................


AMOUNT WON...................................


MICRO CHIP NUMBER..................................

OCCUPATION.....................................

MARITAL STATUS...............................

DECLARATION:

I..........................................................HEREBY DECLARE THAT THE ABOVE DATA ARE TRUE. THAT MY CLAIMS AGENT SHALL ACT AS A FACILITATOR IN THE TRANSFER OF THE TOTAL FUND TO ME.

Congratulations once again from the entire staff of the Microsoft Award Team.


MR. JIM JOHNSON
MICROSOFT AWARD TEAM.
United Kingdom
Tel:+(44)-702-401-4497
Fax:+(44)-707-502-4387






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

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

Anti-fraud resources: