|
|
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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "yahoo/msn lottery inc" (no such lottery exists)
- "yahoo/msn lottery" (no such lottery exists)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "00,000.00" (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.
- +447045747585 (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.
- henrypeters4msn@hotmail.com
Fraud email example:
From: "MsnMicrosoft Promotion" <michealfletcher01@hamdard.net.pk>
Reply-To: michealfletcher01@live.com
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 14:41:44 +0500
Subject: FINAL NOTIFICATION
Dear winner
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Five hundred
thousand, Great Britain Pound Sterlings(£500,000.00) for the month of
FEBRUARY, 2008.
Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY
INC.We congratulate you for being one of the five person selected
You are to contact the events agent for claims
These are your identification numbers:
Batch number.....................YM 09102XN
Reff number.......................YM35447XN
Winning number...................YM09788
How ever you will have to fill and submit this form to the events
1. Full name..............2. Contact Address........
3. Age....................4. Telephone Number.......
5. Sex....................6.Occupation...................
7..State:.................8.Country................
9. Your Reference and Batch number at the top of this mail:
(CONTACT EVENTS AGENT)
Name:Mr Henry Peter.
E-mail:henrypeters4msn@hotmail.com
Telephone: +44 704 574 7585
+44 703 1838 548
Anti-fraud resources:
