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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "million pounds" (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)
  • ",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!

Fraud email example:

From: "ONLINE SWEEPSTAKES - FREE LOTTO" <freelotto@freelottoinc.net>
Reply-To: verideptukfreelotto@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:02:33 +0000
Subject: Attn: Dear Winner.......AUGUST WINNING DRAWS




THE FREE LOTTO COMPANY
UK HEAD OFFICE
SUITE 23-30, LION TOWERS
CENTRAL LONDON ENGLAND

www.freelotto.com

Dear Winner

We are pleased to announce to you the draw of the Free lotto PRO GRAMME online Sweepstakes International Program held on 06/08/2008.Your name and e-mail address attached to ticket number: 56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/05 drew the lucky number: 10 which subsequently won the LOTTO PLUS 1 prize. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of 1,000,000 pounds (One million Pounds) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/05 of Free Lotto.

All participants for the online version were selected randomly from he World Wide Web through a computer draw system and extracted from over 50,000,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies that are listed online.This promotion takes place weekly.Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our American booklet representative office in America as indicated in your play coupon. In view of this, your 1,000,000 pounds would be released to you by any of our payment offices in Europe(UK).

To file for your c

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam