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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"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:
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "cocacola_n89@live.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
- They don't notify winners by email.
- You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
- They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
- They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
- They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
- They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
- They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <cocacola_n89@live.com>
Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 19:38:46 +0700
Subject: Coca-cola Award 2012
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling (750,000.00 GB Pounds) for the 2012 International E-mail Draw which is Organized by The Coca-Cola Company Promotions Department (CCCPD). You are among the winners in a random world wide web computerized draw system, extracted from over a million companies and individual email address of the people that are active online. Six people are selected yearly to benefit from this promotion and you are one of the Selected Winners.
PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
Winners shall be paid in accordance with his/her Settlement Center. Coca-cola Award must be claimed not later than 30 days from date of Draw
Notification. Any Prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited. Stated below is your identification number:
REFERENCE NUMBER: CCCPD-24052010
This number fall's within the South East Asia Region Location, you are requested to contact our fiduciary agent in Bangkok, Thailand.
Name : Mr. Andrew Tan
Email : cocacola_n89@live.com
phone.+66812586907
Please, Kindly email to him with the following information for Verification of your Prize;
Full name..............................
Address...............................
Nationality............................
Age....................................
Sex....................................
Marital Status.........................
Occupation.............................
Telephone Home / Mobile .................
E-mail address.........................
He shall immediately commence the process that will facilitate the release of your fund to you. Congratulations to you;
Yours in service,
[Publicity Secretary]
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Anti-fraud resources:
