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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!
Fraud email example:
From: "COCA-COLA PROMOTION BOARD UK" <INFO@cocacola.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: cocacolaboarduk@live.co.uk
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:03:55 +0100
Subject: CONGRATULATION
This is a certified notification of the just concluded final draws of the
London Coca-Cola monthly promo. We concluded the final draws of the
Coca-Cola promotion program held on March 2012. In United Kingdom. You
have been approved to be paid a winning sum of 500,000.00GBP only.
Attn: Winner
The online world Email draws was conducted from an exclusive list of
1,000,000 Email ID'S of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an
advanced automated random computer selection from the web. No tickets were
sold. After this automated computer ballot, Your Email Id's emerged as one
of the five winners in category "C" with the followings:
REFERENCE NUMBER: 568A2008,
BATCH NUMBER: G245
WINNING AMOUNT: 500,000.00GBP ONLY
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE US YOUR FULL DETAILS BELOW
1. Name……………………….....
2. Address:......................
3. Marital Status:.................
4. Occupation:........................
5. Age:...................................
6. Sex:.......................................
7. Nationality:..................................
8. Country of Residence…………………….....
9. Telephone Number:...................................
10. Fax Number:...........................................
11. Email Address
The Coca-Cola and its Co-Sponsors congratulates you once more!
Best Regards
Thanks.
Coca-Cola BOARD UK CHAPTER
Email:cocacolaboarduk@live.co.uk
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Anti-fraud resources:
