419 Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam (2006-01)

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

Home

About Us

Spam

419/Nigeria

Fraud

Contact

"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 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:
1. They don't notify winners by email.
2. You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
3. They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
4. They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
5. They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
6. They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
7. 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.
- +447031990858 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: mrsdonnald.rita@administrativos.com
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:33:55 GMT
Subject: END OF YEAR PROMOTION(CONGRATULATION YOU HAVE WON A TOYOTA
CAMRY CAR AND 500,000 POUNDS)

Congratulation

You are No(5)Your E-mail Has Won You (500,000.000 and a Toyota Camry car
2007/2008 model)Britain Pounds MICROSOFT AWARD PROMO
Batch No: 452006/14/FIFA06/FL To claim your winnings you are expected to
contact your agent Mrs Tamika Gary via email immediately within 24hrs with
thefollowing details below.

1.Full name............................
2.Country..............................
3.Contact Address......................
4.Telephone Number.....................

Mrs. Tamika Gary
Head Winning Claims Dept.
Tel: +447031990858
Email: mrsdonnald.rita@administrativos.com
Microsoft Promotion Team

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam