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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:
- "fudiciary" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "hundred thousand great british pounds" (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 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.
- davidmarsh001@aol.com (AOL; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Dorcas Patrick Armstrong" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <nlb.uk777@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2011 11:01:55 +0100
Subject: Lottery Winning Claims!
Dear Winner,
You have won the sum of (1,200,000.00) One Million Two Hundred Thousand
Great British Pounds Sterlings from NATIONAL LOTTERY BOARD on our 2011 new
year charity.
The winning ticket was selected from a Data Base of Internet Email
Users,from which your Address came out as the winning
coupon.
We hereby urge you to claim the winning amount quickly as this is a
monthly lottery. Failure to claim your win will result into the reversion of the fund to our following month.
You are therefore requested to contact immediately out Claims Department
below quoting winning number: LOTTERY NUMBER:02-03-17-22-40-89-{67}.
Name:
Address:
Telephone Number:
Occupation:
Country:
Sex:
Age:
Contact : FUDICIARY AGENT
Contact Person: Marsh David.
E-mail: davidmarsh001@aol.com
Congratulations once again.
please quote your lottery number.
Regards,
Mrs. Dorcas Patrick Armstrong
Executive (International Sweepstakes Lottery).
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Anti-fraud resources:
