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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.
- 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.
- cocacola44@i12.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Ann Robort" (may be fake)
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 02:27:40 -0600
Subject: YOUR GBP250,000,00 DONATION IS PENDING FOR COLLECTION
COCA COLA INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION
AVENUE STAMFORD BRIDGE LONDON.
SW1V 3DW UNITED KINGDOM
Coca-Cola Donation PINCODE: *665477*
Qualification number: D-910-56
Congratulation winners,
Your email address has won a donation of 250,000.00 GBP in the 2nd 2009 Coca Cola International L Mobile draw/ L Email draw.
It pending for your collection kindly contact the below information for claim.
Contact Mr. Ronald Brown
E-mail: cocacola44@i12.com
Tel: 00448712373008
Details required for verification.
First Name:
Last Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Country:
Age:
Occupation:
Marriage Status:
Cell Phone Number:
Your internet Service:
Email address:
Once again congratulation on Euro Millionaire Coca Cola free donation 2nd promotion 2009.
Thanks
Miss Ann Robert
Information Officer
Euro Coca Cola Award Promotion.
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Anti-fraud resources:
