|
|
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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "please endeavor to " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million 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)
- ",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)
- 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.
- +31626439087 (Netherlands, 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: "Association Of European Charity Foundations." <info@cfd.com>
Reply-To: <gfletcher_7@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 19:30:56 -0400
Subject: NOTIFICATION FOR CASH AID.
Dear Sir/Madam,
NOTIFICATION FOR CASH AID.
This is to notify you that you that the Association Of European Charity
Foundations in conjunction with the European Union , is giving out a
yearly donation of One Hundred Million United States Dollars as specific
Donations/Grants to 50 lucky international recipients worldwide.
You were selected among the lucky recipients to receive the award sum of
US$2,000,000.00 (Two Million United States Dollars) as charity
donations/aid from the Association Of European Charity Foundations and the UNO.
You are required to expeditiously Contact the Executive Secretary below
for qualification documentation and processing of your claims, from
Monday through Sunday. On contact with this officer, you'll be given your donation pin number which you will use in collecting the funds. Please endeavor to quote your Qualification numbers (N-222-6747, E-900-56) in all discussions.
*********************************
Executive Secretary,
Mr.Gerald Fletcher
Tel:+316 264 39087
Fax:+318 474 54671
Email: gfletcher_7@yahoo.com.hk
*********************************
On behalf of the Board kindly accept our warmest congratulations.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs.Susan Wallace
(Foundation Officer)
--
Anti-fraud resources: