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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:
- "from: the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "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)
- ",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.
- +447031899061 (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.
- heritage@national-champs.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: debtmanagementoffice@freenet.de
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:00:28 +0100
Subject: HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND WINNER
HERITAGE LOTTERY FUNDS PROMOTIONS
7 Holbein Place, London, SW1W 8NR
United Kingdom
FROM: THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR PROMOTIONS,
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT,
REF: HLF/66-CAW662008
Dear Winner,
We are pleased to announce you as one of the 6 lucky
winners in the HERITAGE LOTTERY FUNDS draw held on the 1st of
March,2008. All 6 winning addresses were randomly a batch of 40,000
international emails.Your email address emerged alongside 5 others as a
3rd category winner in this month\'s draw. Consequently,you have
therefore been approved for a total pay out of £1,000,000 Pounds( One
Million pounds)only. Please contact the underlisted claims officer as
soon as possible for the immediate release of your winnings prize:
Mr.
Edward Pinto,
Email:
HERITAGE@National-Champs.com
Tel+447031899061
Congratulations once again
from all members and staff of this program. Thank you for being part of
our promotional lottery programs.
Sincerely,
MRS HELEN PALMER THE
DIRECTOR PROMOTIONS,
Unbegrenzter Speicher, Top-Spamschutz, 120 SMS
und eigene E-MailDomain
inkl.
http://office.freenet.de/dienste/emailoffice/produktuebersicht/power/mail/index.html
Anti-fraud resources:
