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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:
- The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "national lottery promotion" (no such lottery exists)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- 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.
- 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.
- agentrevfatherpaul@yahoo.com
Fraud email example:
From: "james smith" <uklottoinfoawards@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 01:43:22 +0400
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS: Lucky Recipient
CONGRATULATIONS: Lucky Recipient,
Winning Numbers
(1) (2) (26) (30) (40) (21)
Congrats, it is with great pleasure to inform you, of your E-mail emerging
as one of our winners in this year Uk International Lottery Promotion.This
program is conducted annually and you have emerged as one of our winner for
this year 2008.You hereby have been approved a lump sum pay of 250,000.00GBP
(TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND POUND STERLING) in cash credit file .All winnings MUST
be claimed before the 30th of July. 2008.CONTACT YOUR CLAIMS AGENT AT:
REV FATHER PAUL
agentrevfatherpaul@yahoo.com
+234-7039515412
So you are required to contact the bank with the information below.
1)Your name..................
2)Your address..................
3)telephone number..............
4)fax number...................
5)Age.....................
6)Gender..............
7)Occupation..............
8)nationality...............
BEST REGARDS
Rose Adams(Mrs)
(LOTTERY COORDINATOR)
Anti-fraud resources:
