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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")
- ",500,000" (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)
- "martinjones45@daum.net" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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: "Mr.Thomas Kellem" <seller3445@gmail.com>
Reply-To: martinjones45@daum.net
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2021 15:08:03 -0800
Subject: Merry Xmas to You This 17th day of December
Congratulations!!!
Merry Xmas to You This 17th day of December the entire staff of
Microsoft Corporation
(Promotion Department) wish to inform you that you have just been
selected as a lucky winner from the Microsoft December/January 2021 email
draws that is usually held twice in every year.
Microsoft Corporation organize this promotion offer in other to
compensate consumers of the product in the world at large for their
infinite supports towards Covid-19 Pandemic Situation and also for the
growth of the company.
Hence you have won $5,500,000.00 USD (Five Million Five Hundred United
States Dollars Only) and you are expected to fill and send back the
following for claims:
====================================
Full Name………….
Address……………
Sex……………….
Marital Status……..
Age……………….
Country……………
Occupation…………
Telephone Numbers…..
====================================
SEND YOUR DETAIL TO CLAIMS AGENT
MARTIN JONES
(martinjones45@daum.net)
====================================
Congratulations!! Once again.
Yours in service,
The Award Team
(Microsoft Corporation)
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Anti-fraud resources:
