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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:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- 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: "Lottery USA"<lotteryusa@mail.com>
Reply-To: workmailboxoffice@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2020 07:40:26 +0800
Subject: Ref N0: GIG/08-0012/CJ.
Lottery USA
Online Lottery Promo Dept.
Customer Service.
PO Box 11803
New York
45 South Service Road,
Plainview, NY
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Date of Notification 09-30-2020
Ref N0: GIG/08-0012/CJ.
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Attn: Winner.
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Congratulations!
Your e-mail address attached to the Batch N0: KK6/0058 with Serial numb=
er: 06/108955 drew [5] [11] [13] [17] [14] [48] [25], which subsequently w=
on you a prize in the category =201CB=201D. You have therefore been approve=
d to claim a total sum of $213,000 (Two hundred and thirteen thousand USD o=
nly) in cash credited to file Reference N0: GIG/08-0012/CJ.
=
Please be advised as follows: To file for your claim, kindly contact our c=
ertified and accredited claims agent with the information below:
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***********************************************
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Name: Annie Shipman
Claims processing agent
For: Lottery USA
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***********************************************
You are advised to provide her with the following information:
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
City & Country:
Age:
Occupation:
Reference Number (stated above)
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Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Hillary Rodriguez
Online Coordinator
Lottery USA =
=
=
=20
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Anti-fraud resources:
