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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "uk national lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- 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.
- +447024053749 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- 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.
- ukclaimschrisbrown01@hotmail.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: ukclaimschrisbrown01@hotmail.co.uk
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:19:36 +1200
Subject: Your Email Address Have Won
BRITISH NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS:
28 TAN FIELD ROAD,
CROYDON, LONDON.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Ref: UK/940X2/68
Dear Winner,
We are pleased to inform you of the final announcement of the UK National Lottery weekend Online Promo Programme
held on the 20th October, 2007. The draw was done electronically with several email addresses provided
to this office by microsoft to enhance the utilization of the internet. Your email address was attached to Reference
Number UK/940X2/68 and was picked as one of the ten winning email addresses.This has qualified you to claim the total
cash prize Of £753,437 To file your claim, contact our claims agent Mr.Chris Brown
with these details: Name,Age,Occupation,Address,Phone No and Country.
via Email: ukclaimschrisbrown01@hotmail.co.uk
Yours Truly,
Sir Steven Smith Co-Coordinator (Online Promo Programme).
For more info call.+447024053749,+447024072910
Anti-fraud resources:
