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:
  • "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
  • ",500,000" (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.
  • p.claims07@hotmail.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: p.claims07@hotmail.co.uk
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:59:33 +0100
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION!!!


FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR
INTERNATIONAL WORLDWIDE INTERNET USER
LOTTERY PRIZE AWARD DEPT.

Dear Internet User,

YOUR WINNING NOTIFICATION FOR USING THE
INTERNET.

We are pleased to inform you that one of the best
things that can happen to any Internet user is
to be rewarded for spending money and time on
the Internet. You may not have known that over
one hundred billion people daily surf the
Internet on regular basis for one reason or
other. These Internet users including yourself,
pay access fees to various Internet Service
Providers (ISP) all over the world who in turn
remit surplus funds to the numerous World
Wide Internet Technology Companies (WWITC)
for the development and advancement of
Global Information Technology.

So much money is generated from people like
you all over the World for using the Information
Superhighway (the Internet) without your being
aware the enormous sum that go to the stake
holders (WWWITC). Without your patronage,
this would not have been possible. After we
conducted a research on the issue, we
concluded that Internet users should be
compensated. As a result, we embarked on a
worldwide lottery promotion with a sophisticated
automated database to randomly select E-mail
accounts that frequently surf the Internet.
Consequent upon this, your E-mail address was
picked for Category "A" Winners.

After the automated computer ballot, your E-
mail address emerged as a winner in the
category "A" with the following numbers
attached

Ref Number: PW EH 9590 OG 0612,
Batch Number: PA 563881545-NL/2008


You and other category "A" winners are
therefore to receive a cash prize of One Million
Five hundred Great Britian Pounds Sterling
(#1,500,000.00) respectively from the total
payout of One million Great Britian Pounds Sterling
earmarked in the lottery for category "A" winners.
Your prize award has been insured with your E-mail
address, which qualified you for the lottery and
will be transferred to you upon meeting our
requirements, statutory obligations,
verifications, validations and satisfactory proof
of E-mail address ownership.

To file in for the processing of your money, you
are advised to contact our certified
and accredited claims agent for category "A"
winners with the information below:

CLAIMS AGENT.
Name: Mr. William Smith
E-mail:p.claims07@hotmail.co.uk

You will provide him with the following
information:

First name:
Last Name:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:

NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later
than 14 days, thereafter unclaimed funds would
be forfeited after a trio repeated forwarding of
this message to you without your response.
Remember to quote your reference information
in all correspondence. (Ref No: PW EH 9590 OG
0612, Batch No: PA 563881545-NL/2008),


You are to keep all lotto information
confidential, especially your reference numbers
and the password of your E-mail address. Since
we do not know you, if an impostor hacks your E-
mail account ID and claims your money without
our knowledge, we shall not be liable. Double
claims will not be entertained so be careful.
Furthermore, should there be any change of
address do inform our agent as soon as
possible.

Congratulations! Thank you for being a user of
the World Wide Web.


Yours Faithfully,
Mary Jones
Lottery Coordinator.
Thank you and
congratulations!!!

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam