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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 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")
- ",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)
- "you are advice to " (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 mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +31619289659 (Netherlands, prepaid mobile phone)
- 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.
- vettingdept@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "prizeawardbv" <cviall@tellurian.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:19:29 +0200
Subject: YOU HAVE WON
FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR PRIZE AWARD DEPT
INTERNATIONAL PRIZE AWARD DEPT
WINNING INFORMATIONS:
Ref Nr: RJ/ES4U/07
Batch Nr: 4790221-NL/2007
Ticket Nr: 24278674611
Lucky Nr 04-23-47-82-22-31
Amount Won: 2,500,000.00 Dollars
The online cyber lotto draws was conducted from an exclusive
list of 25,000,000 e-mail addresses of individual and
corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random
computer search from the internet. No tickets were sold.
To file in for the processing of your prize winnings, you
are advised to contact our Certified and Accredited claims
agent for category "A"winners with the information below:
***************************
Name: Mr. Max Rumuller
Email:vettingdept@aim.com
Tel: +31-619-289-659
Fax: +31-847-129-924
***************************
You are advice to pro vide him with the following
information
and a copy of your international passport or driver's
license via email attachment or by fax for vetting process
which is a standard practice just to ensure that we are
dealing with the right individual.
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:
Sincerely yours,
Mrs Mary Adams
Lottery Coordinator
Anti-fraud resources:
