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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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "cheque " (Beware of any scheme that involves cashing checks or money orders and then wiring a portion of the funds somewhere - you'll be liable for the entire amount if the checks or money orders turn out to be fake, even after you have received and forwarded cash. If it's a lottery prize, remember that real lotteries do not pay large prizes by check. They wire the money directly to your bank account and you do not pay for that. Many scammers promise a large check only in order to then demand payment of courier fees for a fake courier service. )
- 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 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.
- ukgaming04@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: ukgaming02@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:27:26 -0400
Subject: YOU HAVE WON
We happily announce the results of the previous week online draws of over 300,000 email leads where six email
addresses were randomly selected and that made the email addresses automatically winners of the sum of £516,778.00
GBP.
This is meant to inform you that your email address was among the six email address chosen which therefore means to say
that you are a winner of the sum of £516,778.00 GBP which will be issued in a cheque on
your name in receipt of the requested datas below.
1.FULL NAMES:________________________
2.ADDRESS:_________________________
3.SEX:________________________________
4.AGE:________________________________
5.MARITAL STATUS:_____________________
6.OCCUPATION:_________________________
7.TELEPHONE NUMBER:___________
8.COUNTRY:___________
Contact Our Claims Agent
Name: Mr Peter Taylor
Email ukgaming04@hotmail.com
After filling the form , you are to contact the claims office with theinformation filled in the form for further
instructions and processing of your winning through the contact email address below.
Congratulations from the staffs and members of the National Lottery
Sweepstakes U K.
Sincerely,
Lucy Baines.
online Co-ordinator
Anti-fraud resources:
