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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")
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- 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!
Fraud email example:
From: "United Nations Trust Funds" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <united_nationclaims@gncn.net>
Date: Sat, 7 May 2011 13:42:35 +0100
Subject: Good Day,
United Nations Trust Funds
Switzerland Department of Humanitarian Affairs
Palais des Nations CH-1211
Geneva 10S Switzerland.
Website: www.unesco.org
Dear Winner
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Eight Hundred And Fifty Thousand United State Dollars{$850,000.00USD} in the 2011 E-mail Prize Awards which is organized by United Nations Trust Funds Organization,this is your winning number:....{UNO/154/4456/011} we congratulate you for being this year second place winner of this year E-mail Prize Awards.
Ensure you contact Mr.Barry mark who is our claims official in West Africa {Nigeria} for claims of your prize and can only understand your English language.See details of him below.
(CONTACT CLAIMS OFFICER)
Name: Mr.Barry mark
Email: united_nationclaims@gncn.net
How ever you will have to fill and submit the Claims Release Verification Form to the claims officer.
CLAIMS RELEASE VERIFICATION FORM
{1}. Full name:..............{2}. Contact Address:........
{3}. Age:....................{4}. Telephone Number:.......
{5}. Marital Status:.........{6}. Sex:..male..................
{7}. Occupation............ {8}. State:.................
{9}. Country:...............{10}.Nationality:...........
We know you must be excited and very happy about this news you have just received from us and the truth is that we are doing this to put smiles into homes and hearts of people worldwide.Once again congratulation from all staff of United Nations Trust Funds Organization.
Signed,
Mr, Ban Ki Moon
(UNITED NATIONS GENERAL SECRETARY)
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Anti-fraud resources:
