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:
  • ",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.
  • hsbc_banking1@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "officeofukprimeminister" <officeofukprimeminister@nonifamily.net>
Date: Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:51:28 +0530 (IST)
Subject: YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HAS WON X1,000,000!

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

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 July, 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 paying Bank at this
email address: hsbc_banking1@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