|
|
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:
- 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:
- "you are advice to " (this email uses bad English)
- 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: "Dr.Rosemary Thompson"<bukolasarakistpfg@gmail.com>
Reply-To: infomegaml7@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2022 06:13:32 +1100
Subject: Congratulations!! you have Won
Global Internet Network/Mega Millions Lottery New York 10911, United States=
of America Attn : Winner Global Internet Network in collaboration with Meg=
a Millions Lottery hereby announces to you as one of the 100 lucky winners =
in the ongoing 12 Years Global Internet Network Award which took place on t=
he 22TH FEBRUARY 2022. This Lottery is Free Online Global Internet Network/=
Mega Millions Lottery organized by United States Agency for International D=
evelopment. All 100 winning Global Internet Network/ Mega Millions Lottery =
accounts were randomly selected from a batch of 50,000 Microsoft email acco=
unts you have approve to receive your winning prize of $75 Million. These a=
re your identification numbers. Ticket number...................... 6172257=
623 Payment Ref number....................N.EGS/3662367114/21 Your fund is =
now deposited with our paying Center in USA so you are advice to contact Mr=
. David Mark the President, Of Global Internet Network with the following e=
mail: info_megamillionslottery@vipmail.hu to enable him to direct you on ho=
w you will receive your winning price. You can track your winning number on=
https://www.lotteryusa.com/mega-millions/ Congratulation in advance.. Than=
ks Dr.Rosemary Thompson Secretary
|
Anti-fraud resources:
