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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:
- "you are advice to " (this email uses bad English)
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- "courier company" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- 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.
- oceanicwiretransfer@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: "OCEANIC BANK INTERNATIONAL PLC." <oceanicbankwiretransfer@gail.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:39:00 +0700 (WIT)
Subject: ATM 2903
Our Ref: FGN /SNT/STB
Your Ref: ATM CARD 2903
Dear Beneficiary,
I am very glad to inform you that your email emerged as one of the lucky winners to receive this years award of a cash grant of the sum of $6.8 million million.
In order for the winnings to be delivered to you without stress, we are glad to officially inform you that an ATM Card has been accredited in your favor.Your Personal identification Number is 2903.
The ATM Card Value is $6.8 million.You are advice to contact us for more information.(OCEANICWIRETRANSFER@GMAIL.COM)
FULL NAME:
DELIVERY ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER
COUNTRY:
OCCUPATION
MARITAL STATUS:
SEX:
AGE:
As soon as we receive the requested information, we will instruct the courier company to deliver the prize winnings to you.
Regards,
Mrs Linda Peters
Anti-fraud resources:
