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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:
- "million pounds" (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)
- "securetrustbk@foxmail.com" (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: "UK internet Lottery" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bbhussain2@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2015 08:57:35 -0700
Subject: Congratulations This Email Has Won Two Million Pounds
Dear Email Owner,
Your email has won Two Million Pounds in the UK internet 2015 New Year Lottery.
You are to contact the paying bank for the immediate transfer of your winning
sum with this secret code :UKLW0901057
You are also to send the bank details of your 1-Your Name 2-Country 3-Age
4-Phone Number. You are to contact the bank on this email: securetrustbk@foxmail.com
Important Notice;You are adviced to keep this information only to yourself until
your winning amount has been transferred to you by the bank.This is because if we find out
that your secret code information and winning information is sent for claims on your behalf by any
of your family member or friend for claims of your winning amount,your winnings will be nullified.
This email is registered and sent only to approved UK Internet Lottery Winner.
Jaime Gibson
UK internet Lottery Co-ordinator
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Anti-fraud resources:
