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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:
- "the bmw automobile company" (no such lottery exists)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "hundred thousand great british pounds" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- 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.
- bmwclaims7@hotmail.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2009 10:57:31 -0500
Subject: Ticket Number: 8603775966738
THE INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS PROMOTION
DEPARTMENT OF THE BMW AUTOMOBILE COMPANY.
41 Wigmore Street London W1U 1PJ, United Kingdom,
Draw date:5th/03/2009
WINNING NOTIFICATION:
In the final draw of 5th day of March 2009 Your e-mail address attached to Ticket Number: 8603775966738 with the following Winning Numbers:6, 18, 40, 43,
47, 49, 32 (bonus no.32) has won you £500,000.00 G.B.P. (Five Hundred thousand Great British Pounds) in the ongoing BMW AUTOMOBILE 2009 awareness program
lottery.
You are to contact Mr.Barry Johnson the fiduciary agent via email (bmwclaims7@hotmail.co.uk<mailto:bmwclaims7@hotmail.co.uk>) with the information stated below to validate your claims:
1.FULL NAMES OF BENEFICIARY:
2.RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
3.DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
4.PHONE/FAX NUMBERS:
5.NAME AND ADDRESS OF NEXT OF KIN:
6.SEX:
7.OCCUPATION:
8.MARITAL STATUS:
9.AMOUNT WON:
10.WINNING EMAIL:
11.NATIONALITY:
N.B. Your response should be sent to (bmwclaims7@hotmail.co.uk<mailto:bmwclaims7@hotmail.co.uk>) as email sent to any other address will not be attended to.
Yours Sincerely
Michael M. Jones
Announcer BMW Lottery
Anti-fraud resources:
