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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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- 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.
- private.anthonyfrancis@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr & Mrs. Large" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <private.anthonyfrancis@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2013 04:35:04 -0800
Subject: OUR DONATION TO YOU
Congratulations
My wife and I won a Jackpot Lottery of $ 10.5 million in July and have voluntarily decided to donate the sum of $ 500,000.00 USD to you as part of our own charity project this Year to improve the individuals all over the world. . Your E-mail was sent to my wife and I, from the Google management Team. If you have received this email then you are one of the lucky recipients.
To facilitate the payment process of the funds [$ 500,000.00 USD] that has been donated solely to you, please send us your contact address and a valid identification (ie either Driver's License / International Passport of yours) to our Attorney in the person of Bar. Anthony Francis on his mail address:private.anthonyfrancis@gmail.com or before 14 days after you receive
this message so that he can forward your details to the payout bank. We hope that you will be able to use the money wisely and judiciously there in your country. We will employ you to do what you can to alleviate the level of poverty in your region and also try to improve the standard of living of as many as possible because it is the only goal for donating this money to you in the first place.
I like to re-assure you of the legitimacy of this Services as we will not be involved in any fraudulent act and will never be. We will advise as you as the "Sole Beneficiary" to be calm not to loose this great opportunity which millions of people are trying to entangled but the chances just couldn't come for
them because a lot of people are out there to discourage them as they don't know how it works, and have never seen such before.
You can check this by going to the news websites below .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11699678
Good luck,
ALLEN AND VIOLET LARGE
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Anti-fraud resources:
