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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:
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million united states dollars" (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 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: "Mega International" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <gary01brown@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2014 07:35:33 -0300
Subject: Private Message
MEGA LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL
705-719 Pershore Road Birmingham,
West Midlands B29 7NY
United Kingdom.
Ref: BP6873433
Ticket: 1240943
Congratulations!!!
We are delighted to bring to your notice that your email address has won in the 2014 Mega Lottery Email draw which was conducted in London.
After a random selection of millions of email addresses which were provided by worldwide email directories, your email address emerged as the lucky address in the final category and you have won the prize of Two Million United States Dollars($2,000.000.00)
You are therefore advised to contact your claim agent immediately for claim guidelines and immediate payment of your prize money. Dr. Gary Brown has been assigned to guide you and below are his contact details;
Name: Dr. Gary Brown
Tel:+44-782-396-7530
We advise that you reply this message immediately with your Ticket number so as your claims agent can attend to you swiftly.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Cindy Ross
(Publicity Secretary)
www.megalottery.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
