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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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million united states 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)
- "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 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.
- +27730939002 (South Africa, prepaid mobile phone)
Fraud email example:
From: draw winner <claimdept112@msn.com>
Reply-To: <saclaim.dept@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 15:40:38 +0000
Subject: SOUTH AFRICA FIFA WORLD-CUP LOTTERY/PRIZE
SOUTH AFRICA FIFA WORLD-CUP LOTTERY
Congratulations your email is among the Two lucky winners, that won$1,000.000.00{ One Million United State Dollars} Each in the just concluded draw held to promote South African 2010 World Cup, sponsored by British /American/South African tobacco companies .
Your e-mail address: was selected from a computer electronic balloting system draw "2009" and was attached to the lottery winning ticket numbers: 7YZ206 which qualified you for the payment amount of $1,000,000 Million (One Million United States Dollars Only).For prize claiming"""
CALL AND CONTACT OUR CLAIM MANAGER.
Name: Mr. Desmond Dube
Tel : +27 730 939 002
Note: also provide the following information’s for the processing of your winning fund.
NAME:
ADDRESS:
NATIONALITY:
SEX:
AGE:
PHONE/MOBILE:
FAX:
OCCUPATION:
COMPANY:
Your Email Attached to Ticket No: (7YZ206) and ballot No: (BT120A) Yours Faithfully,
Management
FIFA World Cup™
Tournaments
World Football
FIFA World Cup™
Anti-fraud resources:
