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)
  • "00,000.00" (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.
  • officeofukprimeminister@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "officeofukprimeminister" <officeofukprimeminister@nonifamily.net>
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:02:45 +0530 (IST)
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WON X1,000,000!

OFFICE OF UNITED KINGDOM PRIME MINISTER
MICROSOFT AND YAHOO INTERNET LOTTERY.

Royal Building,
Galleymead Road,
Colnbrook, Berkshire,
SL3 0EN London England.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU WON £1,000,000!

ATTN:Valued Customer, Yahoo! Mail gives members random cash prizes.
Today,your email account was randomly selected as the one of 5 top winners
accounts who will get cash prizes from us. We are happy to inform you that
you have won a prize money of (One Million Great British Pounds Sterling
(£1,000,000.00) for the month of June, 2008. Lottery win promotion which is
organized by yahoo messenger.com every month.

YAHOO, collects all the mail ID of the people that are online on yahoo
messenger, among the millions that subscribed to yahoo messenger. We
only select five people every month as our winners through electronic
balloting System without the winner applying. We are congratulating you for
been one of the people selected.

All participants were selected through a computer balloting system drawn
from 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.

We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year
high stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw. These are your
identification numbers:

Lotto number........................Lwh09446
Winning number...................Lwh09447

To begin your claims, kindly contact our fiduciary agent and paying
office:His name is Mr Gordon Brown:Newly appointed British Prime Minister:
this email address is the direct mail: officeofukprimeminister@yahoo.co.uk

You are required to forward him with the following details:

1.FULL NAME
2.COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
3.PRESENT ADDRESS
4.SEX
5.DATE OF BIRTH
6.OCCUPATION
7.TELEPHONE NUMBER
8.MARITAL STATUS
9.WINNING NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER.
10. THE MONTH YOU
WON........................................................

As soon as you contact him, he will advise you on what to do in order
to get your prize money.Congratulations once more!!


Yours Sincerely,

DR. WILLIAM GERRI

LOTTERY CO-ORDINATOR.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam