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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:
- "with your full names" (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)
- "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 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.
- +34615730594 (Spain, 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.
- quainfo40@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "ONCE LOTERIA ESPANA"<oncelott@aim.com>
Reply-To: <quainfo47@aim.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 00:41:51 -0700
Subject: ONCE LOTTERY PROMO!
REF NO: HKD/7684/ES/97
BATCH: YJM879/OLS/09
Winner in the 2nd category of our ONCE LOTERIA free Net Lottery
Promotional award draws held in May, 2009. I am writing in respect to
your lotto winning prize of ONE MILLION, EUROS(1,000,000.00 Euros) which you
won through the email ballot draws in the EUROMILLION Promotional Award in
June, 2009 in the second Category prize winnings categories.
We wish to inform you that your total prize money of One Million
(1.000,000.00) Euro has remained unpaid by our treasury and credit office after
the initial letter to your address for your payment was not successful.
You are hereby requested to contact your claims agent
with your full names,telephone,batch and reference numbers respectively
and immediately update your claims process for your payment.
Mr.ADRIANA WOOD,
FOREIGN TRANSFER MANAGER,
QUALITAS DE SEGUROS
MADRID SPAIN
Email:quainfo40@aim.com
TEL: 0034-615-730-594
Accept our felicitations!
Signed:Clara Casadoro
(Events,Draws and Promotion).
Anti-fraud resources:
