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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 office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "overseas claims unit" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "powerballvalidclaims@live.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- "powerballvalidclaims@live.com" (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.
- +447005982567 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "Power Ball Lottery" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <powerballclaimsenquiry@msn.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2011 17:18:03 +0100
Subject: Your Email Wa Selected..........Batch: 0741/060/GY369
Ref: PWBL/04210X2/65
Batch: 0741/060/GY369
Winning Number: 29 32 36 39 49 {29}
Dear Winner,
This is to inform you that your email was selected for a cash prize of
720,000.00USD ( Seven Hundred and Twenty Thousand Dollars) in the
International programs held on the 28th of February, 2011.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in
our computerized email selection system(s) from a database of over
250,000email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world no
tickets were sold .
To begin the processing of your prize you are to contact our executive
claims officer through the contact stated below with your personal
information for verification purpose contact:
Overseas Claims Unit
Power Ball Online Lottery
Mr. Micheal Goodman
E-mail: powerballvalidclaims@live.com
Tel :+447005982567
REQUIRED INFORMATION:
(a) Full Name: (b) Contact address: (c) Telephone and fax numbers:
(d) Age: (e) Occupation:
NOTE:You are to send all the information listed above to the our correspondence address stated below:
Mr. Micheal Goodman
E-mail: powerballvalidclaims@live.com
Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Mikael Hildebrandt
On-line coordinator for Power Ball Online
Lottery,
Power Ball International Program.
Open 7days 8am-5pm
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Anti-fraud resources:
