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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:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- ",500,000" (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)
- "dalewis2009@yahoo.cn" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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.
- +31626006051 (Netherlands, prepaid mobile phone)
Fraud email example:
From: "E-LOT PROMO" <adrian_sfichi@proton.ro>
Reply-To: dalewis2009@yahoo.cn
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 17:10:06 +0200 (EET)
Subject: Ref Number: RGM/1313-101
THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR E-LOT PRIZE AWARD DEPT.
*Ref Number:RGM/1313-101
*Batch Number: 444821545-NL/2009
*Ticket Number: PP 3812 /2009-03
*Winning Amount : $2,500,000.00.USD
Attn: Dear Internet User,
We are pleased to inform you of the result of our Internet Promotional
Draws. This is a reward program for the patronage of internet services and
all email addresses entered for this promotional draws were randomly
selected from an internet resource database of of registered software and
domain users.
To file in for the processing of your prize winnings, you are advised to
contact our Certified and Accredited claims agent for category 'A' winners
with the information below:
***********************************************
CLAIMS AGENT
Name: Mr.Damien Lewis
Tel:+31 626 006 051
Email: dalewis2009@yahoo.cn
Foreign Claims Agent Netherlands Office.
***********************************************
You are advised to provide him with the following information:
First Name:Last Name:Tel/Fax Number:Nationality:Occupation:Age:
Yours Faithfully,
Phil Rihne.
Lottery Coordinator
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Anti-fraud resources: