419 Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam (2006-01)

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

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:

The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "uk national lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
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!

Fraud email example:

From: "Hampu, Jennifer L" <HAMPUJL@muc.edu>
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:20:56 -0400
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION LETTER.Contact Claims Agent
{uknl2008xtra@live.com}

WINNING NOTIFICATION LETTER. {uknl2008xtra@live.com}
We happily announce That the draw (#568) of UK Online Lottery Raffle
Draw held on 21st July, 2008. Your e-mail address attached to ticket
number: 2,09,14,20,32,02 which subsequently won you the Uk National
Lottery cash Prizes.
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of 590,983.00
(Great Britain Pounds Sterling) in cash credited to file
KTU/9023118308/03.
To file for your claim, please contact our Fiduciary Agent:
DR DENIS ERNEST
Email:uknl2008xtra@live.com
VERIFICATION FORM.(Fill and send to the fiduciary agent).
1.FULLNAME:2.E-MAIL ADDRESS:3.FULL ADDRESS:4.SEX:5.AGE:6.OCCUPATION:
7.TEL:8.COUNTRY:9.AMOUNT WON.
Good luck from me and members of UK Online International Lottery
Hampu, Jennifer L
Online International Lottery

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam