419 scam: "Mrs. Angela William" <lotterynews@cultura.com.br> POST OLYMPIC BONANZA.

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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "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!

Fraud email example:

From: "Mrs. Angela William" <lotterynews@cultura.com.br>
Reply-To: angelawill@blumail.org
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:16:24 -0400
Subject: POST OLYMPIC BONANZA.

LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS LOTTERY TEAM Unit 2A, St Pancras International, Pancras Road, London NW1 2QP. Dear Lucky Winner, You have won prize money of One Million, Eight Hundred Thousand British Pounds (£1,800,000.00) for London 2012 Lottery Draws. The Lottery was organized by two companies in conjunction with the London 2012 Olympic Committee. The process of payment will commence now the Olympics has officially ended. Prize Money must be claimed not later than 28 working days from the date of this Notification. Terms and Conditions apply. Please take note of the following identification information: BATCH NUMBER: FQD/01/SD-43611 REFERENCE NUMBER: 2008294577 PIN: 7122 WINNING NUMBER: 01 34 21 07 35 44 For guidance/processing of your payment, please contact the Processing Office by email (quoting your PIN above): NAME OF PROCESSING OFFICER: Albert Atwood Congratulations! Yours Sincerely, Mrs. Angela William

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam