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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "netherlands gaming board"
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million united state dollars" (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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- 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!
- 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.
- info_claimsagent_seanthompson@yahoo.de (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: jandysmith@mchsi.com (ONLINE POWERBALL LOTTERY B.V)
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 04:37:06 +0000
Subject: OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of
1,000,000.00 USD (one million United State Dollars) in the International
programs held on the 25th of June 2007 in THE NETHERLANDS. The selection
process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email
selection system(s) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from
all the continents of the world. The Powerball lottery Promo is approved by the
Netherlands Gaming Board and also Licensed by The International Association of
Gaming Regulators (IAGR). To begin the
processing of your prize you are to contact our executive claims officer
through the contact stated below with your personal informations for
verification purpose:
Mr. SEAN THOMPSON.
Claims Agent
E-mail: info_claimsagent_seanthompson@yahoo.de
WINNING VERIFICATION FORM
1.Name in full.....................
2.Address..........................
3.Nationality......................
4.Age..............................
5.Occupation.......................
6.Phone/Fax........................
7.Present Country..................
MRS BIRGIT ROMIO Co-coordinator.
Anti-fraud resources:
