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: "THAILAND LOTTERY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <thailandlottery@ymail.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 13:53:19 +0700
Subject: THAI LOTTERY

Greetings,
                       Non-Ticket / Online E-mail Address Winning
 
On behalf of the Kingdom of Thailand Lottery Commission and Asia Pacific
Endowment Foundation, we wish to notify and congratulate you, that you're
"Email Address" was selected as one of the six lucky winners in this 2014
edition of Bangkok Lottery. Your Email Address won the Prize-Money in
category "B" A valid certified cashiers cheque of Seven hundred thousand
British pound sterling (£700,000.00).
 
For verification and release of your winning cash prize A valid certified
cashiers cheque of £700,000.00,
 
Kindly send your following information:-
 
1. Full Name,
2. Telephone number,
3. Home Address (P.O Box Not Acceptable),
4. Age,
5. Occupation and Country
 
to the Lottery Online Agent Mr. Aramat Waraporn,
on this Email:   thailandlottery@ymail.com
 
Once again  Congratulations !
 
Mrs Anchali Patsaporn
Publicity Secretary; Kingdom of Thailand Lottery.

Anti-fraud resources: