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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • ",000,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• 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 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.
  • benzclaimofficelondon@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "MERCEDES BENZ AUTOMOBILE COMPAN WINNING NOTIFICATION"
<mercedesbenznotify19@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <benzclaimofficelondon@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 02:02:40 +0000
Subject: MERCEDES BENZ WINNING NOTIFICATION






BENZ GROUP


THE INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS
PROMOTION DEPARTMENT OF
THE MERCEDES-BENZ AUTOMOBILE COMPANY.
31B Whitcross Street,Stroke HouseEC 1Y 8JJ, LondonUnited Kingdom





ELECTRONIC EMAIL AWARD WINNING .
NOTIFICATION AWARD PRESENTATION CENTER

This is to inform you of the release of email balloting held on the 30th June 2007, by the Mercedes Benz COMPANY on it's anniversary. For the first time ever THE Mercedes Benz COMPANY have decided to celebrate it's anniversary by awarding £450,000.00 (Four Hundred And Fifty Great British Pounds Sterling) each to 10 lucky winners who were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from only Microsoft users from over 30,00000 companies and 5,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world. This promotion is organized by Mercedes Benz Ireland and Mercedes Benz England. However, the results were released on 8th July 2007 and your email was among the 10 Lucky winners who won £450,000.00 each on the anniversary of the Mercedes Benz WORLD LOTTERY UNITED KINGDOM..

You have been approved for lump sums pay out of £450,000.00 GBP in cash Credited to file REF NO: HNW/56B-672GH/L and winning number 23-76-06-54-42-100. Selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ) from a database of over 1,000,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world. The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 29,031 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. No ticket were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy. This is to encourage our prominent Mercedes Benz Customers all over the world.

Your fund (Certified Cashiers Cheque) has been insured with your REF NO: MSW/56B-672GH/L and winning number 23-76-06-54-42-100. To claim your winning prize, you must first contact the claims department by email for Processing and remittance of your prize to you.

Lisa Dale.Mercedes Benz Promotion Award TeamE MAIL:benzclaimofficelondon@yahoo.co.uk
You are advised to contact your fiduciary agent with the following details to avoid unnecessary delays and complications:

VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM.1.FULL NAMES:
2.ADDRESS:3.SEX:4.AGE:
5.MARITAL STATUS:6.OCCUPATION:7.COMPANY NAME
8.E-MAIL ADDRESS:
9.TELEPHONE NUMBER: 10.STATE:11.COUNTRY:12.NATIONALITY:13.HOW DO YOU FEEL AS A WINNER:14.AMOUNT WON:
Sincerely, Donald McallumONLINE COORDINATOR.
_________________________________________________________________
News, entertainment and everything you care about at Live.com. Get it now!
http://www.live.com/getstarted.aspx

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam