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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:
- The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "fondazione di vittorio" (not involved with lotteries)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "hundred thousand united states dollars" (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 mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +2348062408986 (Nigeria, prepaid mobile phone)
- 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.
Fraud email example:
From: =?us-ascii?Q?GRANT=20AWARD=20DONATION=20=20?= <majinka.pajinka@seznam.cz>
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:20:29 +0100 (CET)
Subject: =?us-ascii?Q?YOU=20HAVE=20BEEN=20GRANTED=20A=20PRIZE?=
Fondazione di Vittorio, ITALY
http://www.fondazionedivittorio.it
We bring to your notice the decision by the board of trustees of
Fondazione di Vittorio to choose you as one of the final recipients of
a cash grant for your own personal, educational, and business
development.
To celebrate the new year and in coincidence with our 31st anniversary,
we are giving out a donation of US$500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand
United States Dollars) to 40 lucky recipients who have been selected from
over 25,000 websites all over the globe, as charity donations/ aid
from Fondazione di Vittorio, ECOWAS, EU and the UNO in accordance with
enabling acts of Parliament.
Please contact,
Dr Seun Razaq
e-Mail: razaqdrseun@yahoo.com
Phone: +2348062408986
Also, remember to quote your grant number (B01-0147) and the
underlisted details in all your
correspondence with him;
1.Full name.
2.Address
3.Telephone number. ( Cell preferably )
4.Occupation.
Regards.
Adolfo Pepe
Foundation officer.
Anti-fraud resources:
