joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

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:

Fraud email example:

From: (sent from abused email account)
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:49:58 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: award


CONGRATULATIONS
 
The U.K Mega Promotion team In conjunction with Microsoft Office Live is proud to inform you that you have won £ 730,000.00 (Seven Hundred and Thirty Thousand British Pounds)
 
WHY YOU HAVE WON
 
Your E-mail address is one of 5 lucky Addresses that have won in the weekly Promotion.
 
HOW DID YOU WIN
 
The U.K Mega Promotion, is an Internet based Lottery, Whereby all winners are selected by yahoo internet/email server, this email server visits all Internet providers and email address around the globe, be it .com, .org, .net and all country based web abbreviations, as you have .ca in Canada and .uk in United Kingdom, AOL and hotmails. We select one million email addresses from all over the globe after which 5 email addresses become the winning e-mail address.
 
DETAILS ON THE WINNINGS
 
Your Winning Serial Number is: IMP/73253ZA/2008, Batch Number: 642376/ZA/2008.
 
Just contact our processing agent / regional claim department below for claiming of your prize and remember to quote your Serial and Batch Number for easy processing of your prize. That's it!
 
INTERNATIONAL CLAIMS DEPT.
Office Manager: Mr. Power Mbethe
Tel:  +44 7039 400 326 Ext 3
Email: ukmega@officeliveusers.com
Web: www.ukmega.web.officelive.com
 
Please provide us with a contact telephone numbers where you could be reached
 
Before proceeding with your claim, endeavor to call the processing manager for clarification. Congratulations again and have a lot of fun. Notification Office U.K Mega Promotion. 
 
© Copyright 2003-2008 All rights reserved UK Mega Promotion




Anti-fraud resources: