|
|
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:
- 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:
- "uk national lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
- 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)
- 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 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.
- lotto.winner@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "omar " <sardar.mohammadasif@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: alix1212@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 09:01:35 +0100
Subject:
UK NATIONAL LOTTERY PROCESSING DEPARTMENT
UK INTERNATIONAL AWARDS P0 BOX 1003,
Scotland Glasgow United Kingdom.
Dear Winner,
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of One Million Great
British Pounds Sterling's for this month Lottery promotion which was
organized by UK NATIONAL LOTTERY. UK NATIONAL LOTTERY collects all the
email addresses of the people that are active online among the millions
that subscribed to Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail we only select five people every
Month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner
applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected. You are
to contact the events manager. These are your identification numbers:
Batch number.....................YM 09102XM
Reff number.......................YM 35447XM
Winning number...................DTYFM0988
However you will have to fill and submit this form to the lotto account
officer to open a new account for you now.
Your Full Name:..........................
Your Age:...........................
Your Sex:...........................
Your Address:.......................
Your Phone:.........................
Your State:.........................
Your City...........................
Your Country:.......................
Your Email:.........................
Your password.......................
Your Postal/Zip Code:...............
Your Occupation:....................
Your Attach copy of one photograhp passport......................
Your Next of Kin :...................
PROCEEDURES / RIGHTS AND PRECAUTIONS. The payment options and Contact the
Claims Administrator with all your claims requirements well filled.
(iii)online banking and your of £1,000,000.00GBP by the Barclay's Bank Of
UK A transfer code will be send to you as soon as you proceed with the
information above so you can transfer your money from the account that will
be opening here for you to any other bank account both withen and outside
the country.
To claim your fund contact us lotto.winner@gmail.com
|
Anti-fraud resources:
