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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 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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "yahoo/msn lottery inc" (no such lottery exists)
- "yahoo/msn lottery" (no such lottery exists)
- 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.
- +447045753600 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- 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.
- claimdeptt2011@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Sharon Cole." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <claimdeptt2011@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 02:38:42 +0100
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Winning number.....ZX09789DG
This is to inform you that you have won prize money of Seven Hundred And Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds £750,000.00 for the month of July 2011 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, which is also supported by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei,Bill Gates of microsoft inc,Yahoomail and other corporate organisations.
This is to encourage the use of the internet and computers worldwide.
Forward the following details to help facilitate the processing of your claims:
1. Full Names:
2. Address:
3. Phone Number:
4. Sex:
5. Age:
6. Country of Residence:
7. Winning number:
CLAIM EVENTS MANAGER
Name: Dr. Danny Louis
Email: claimdeptt2011@gmail.com
Telephone: +44 704 5753600
Thank you and accept my hearty congratulations once again!
Best Regards
Mrs. Sharon Cole.
Program Assistant Director.
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Anti-fraud resources:
