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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:
- "fiduciary agent" (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)
- 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.
- +447031913194 (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.
- raulmarkisley_links@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Angela C. Breaux" <ascollin@uno.edu>
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:43:14 -0500
Subject: '''CONGRATULATIONS YOUR EMAIL WON'''
UK NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS:
'''CONGRATULATIONS YOUR EMAIL WON'''
Ref: UK/9420X2/68 Batch:
074/05/ZY36
Dear Winner,
We happily announce to you the
results of draw of the UK
NATIONALLOTTERY,Online
Sweepstakes International program
held on JUNE
2008.All emails were gotten from
diffrent email service providers
online.
it is yet to be claimed and you
are getting the FINAL NOTIFICATION
asregards this. You have
therefore been approved to claim
a total sum
of one million pounds in cash credited
to file KTU/9023118308/03.This is
from a total cash prize of
ten million pounds shared amongst the
first Ten
(10)lucky winners in this
category B.All claims should be
forwarded to
FIDUCIARY AGENT:RAUL MARK ISLEY
With your following informations
NAME; PHONE ;COUNTRY ; OCCUPATION
EMAIL:raulmarkisley_links@yahoo.co.uk
TEL +447031913194, +447024015873
Congratulations once more from
all members
and staffs of this program. Thank
you for being part of our online
promotional lottery programme.
reply to the indicated email of the fuditiary agent
CONGRATULATIONS YOUR EMAIL WON
ONLINE CORDINATOR
ANGELA C. BREAUX
Anti-fraud resources:
