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 FRANK BRIGGS <mrfrankbriggs22@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:20:33 -0600
Subject: ELECTRONIC EMAIL ONLINE LOTTERY




AUSTRALIA E-MAIL ONLINE LOTTERY. MOTTO: FIGHTING POVERTY ROUND THE WORLD Date 24/08/2007Ref: 475061725Batch: 7056490902/188Winning No: GB8701/LPRCCONGRATULATIONSAustralian Lottery BonanzaDear Sir/MadamThe Lucky Winner We are delighted to inform you of your prize release on the 24th of August,2007 from the Australian International Annual Lottery programme. Which is fully based on an electronic selection of winners using their e-mail addresses.Your name was attached to ticket number; 47061725 07056490902 serial number 7741137002 This batch draws the lucky numbers as follows 5-13-33-37-42bonus number 17,which consequently won the lottery in the second category. You here by have been approved a lump sum pay of US$400,000.00 (FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) in cash credit file ref: ILP/HW 47509/02 from the total cash prize shared amongst eight lucky winners in this category. All participants were selected through a computer balloting system drawn form Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia,United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually. This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomerate of some multinational companies as part of their social responsibility to the citizens in the communities where they have operational base. Further more your details(e-mail address) falls within our European representative office in London as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of US$400,000.00 will be released to you from our regional branch office in London. For security reasons,we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel. Note,All winnings are to be claimed before the 15th of September 2007; otherwise all funds will be returned as Unclaimed and eventually donated to charity .Congratulations once again on your wining. PLEASE, CONTACT YOUR CLAIMS AGENT ATNAME:BARR THOMAS PHILIPS:agentphilips77@yahoo.com CLAIMS DEPARTMENT CONTACT INFO; Best regards,BARR THOMAS PHILIPS(European Claims Agent)agentphilips77@yahoo.com APPROVEDYou are therefore advised to send the following information to the claims department to facilitate the verification on your winning.1. Full name..............2. Country................3. Contact Address........4. Telephone Number.......5. Marital Status.........6. Occupation.............7. Age....................8.Winning numbers......... 9.Batch numbers............10.Reference numbers........Congratulations once again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.MRS CAROL SMITH.(Public Relations Officer)BREACH OF CONFIDENTIALITY ON THE PART OF THE WINNERS WILL RESULT TO DISQUALIFICATION.
_________________________________________________________________
Recharge--play some free games. Win cool prizes too!
http://club.live.com/home.aspx?icid=CLUB_wlmailtextlink

Anti-fraud resources: