|
|
joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
|
|
"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:
- "kesspeters@yahoo.nl" (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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Coordinator de Lotto" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ksspeters@yahoo.nl>
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2013 23:52:31 +0100
Subject: End of year lottery bonanza
LOTTO.NL,
1112 AX
Den- haag - The - Netherlands.
2013 END OF YEAR BONANZA!!!
CONGRATULATIONS!!! 2nd Category Lottery Winner.
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the Lotto NL last quarter International e-mail user’s award programs sponsored by Microsoft Inc for the promotion of Microsoft software held on the 30th November, 2013. We wish to congratulate you and formally inform you that upon our verification exercise your email address won the sum of € 1,500.000.00 (One Million Five Hundred Thousand Euro Only) in the 2nd category draw, your winning numbers is NL/HN9865/DF. Winners are selected through an internet ballot system from millions individual and companies e-mail addresses complied by Lotto NL. Congratulation!!!
For immediate release of your cash prize to you, please kindly contact our
Payment Coordinator at the email address below:
Contact Person- Mr.Kees Peters
Email: kesspeters@yahoo.nl
Tel: +31617981266
You are to send him the following data’s for confirmation:
(1).Your Full Names:
(2) Contact telephone numbers:
(3) Contact Address:
(4) Age:
(5) Lotto Winning Number: NL/HN9865/DF
(6) Amount Won: € 1,500.000.00
(7) Occupation:
(8) Email address:
Congratulations once again!!!
Lotto NL
Coordinator de Lotto
Confidentiality notice and Disclaimer: This email message is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material.
|
Anti-fraud resources:
