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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:
- ",000,000" (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)
- "we advice you" (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: "YAHOO LOTTERY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ylotteryworldwide@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2014 02:25:41 +0700
Subject: Yahoo Lottery Winner
Attention Dear Winner
Your e-mail has been noted with below details in our Yahoo Lottery Reference drawn board as a winner of US$1,000,000.00
WINNING NUMBER, BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER.
Serial number.......................51390-0
Lucky number...................03-05-12-14-28-38
Ref number...................N.EGS/3662367114/13
We advice you to kindly contact United Overseas Bank (Thai) Pcl The paying Bank that is in charge of your Lottery Payment.
Quickly contact them with below bank details for your payment
Mr. Yusef Mohamad (Alhaji)
Inward Remittance Dept.,
|||| United Overseas Bank (Thai) Pcl.
Tel: 66) 983 438223
Fax: (66) 2 204-2221
E-mail:info@uob-bank-th.com
Send to the Bank your Winning information's , They will be expecting to hear from you. We have already signal them concerning your Winning Fund Payment.
The Bank has your Winning Certificate and will release your fund once you contact them as instructed.
Do make sure you comply with them for your own good.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Rev.Wright Kane (Co-ordinator)
+(66) 904122038
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Anti-fraud resources:
