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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)
- 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.
- joncaarpenter@gmail.com (Gmail/GoogleMail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: PCH1 <rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr@639777211990bfjru64bfr746.net>
Reply-To: pch@kashidachemicals.com
Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2021 10:54:54 +0100
Subject: PCH1
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Publishers Clearing House
I here by use this medium to acknowledge the receipt of your claims
requirement regarding the winning notification mail you received, that
inform you of the prize you have won. I wish to inform you that the PCH
lotto promotion department have approved your payment of $2,000,000.00
US dollars.
In case you still have doubts arising from the angle of how you got
selected, Note that the selection process was carried out through an
electronic email ballot system our aim was to select winners through the
Internet this is due to the fact that only you alone have access to your
email account so have no fear for you have emerged a true winner as far
as you are the original proprietor to the email account which you have
received.
Kindly provide your details joncaarpenter@gmail.com so we can complete
your PCH winning without any delay:
Name:
Home Address:
Phone Number:
Country:
Profession:
Age:
Congratulations once again.
Bill Woodcock
Executive Director
Publishers Clearing House
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Anti-fraud resources:
