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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.
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "barr." (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- "courier company" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- 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.
- barr.francispaul@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs Ngozi Franka" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <barr.francispaul@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 02:32:06 +0700
Subject: Attn: Winner,
Attn: Winner,
You won the sum of $750,000.00 UNITED STATES DOLLARS from our monthly sweepstakes Lotto.Your email address was among the five Prominet user of the internet in our computer email ballot, You are hereby advice to contact our Headquarter in the person of barr. Francis Paul to collect your winning check.
CONTACT PERSON: barr.Francis Paul
E-MAIL ADDRESS:barr.francispaul@yahoo.com
TEL: 011-234-802-529-6127
CLAIMS PROCESSING REQUIREMENT DATA:
(1) Full Names: __________________
(2) Full Address : __________________
(3) Sex: ___________
(4) Age: ___________
(5) Country:___________
(6) Mobile Phone: _______________
(7) Occupation: _______________
(8) A Copy Of Your Picture: _______________
Note: you are to contact barr.Francis Paul to collect your winning check and also let him know on you email which of the delivery courier company you will like your check to be deliver to you at you home address.
Here is the Delivery Courier Company we deal with.
1) FedEx Courier Company
2) Dhl Delivery Service
3) Evans Delivery Service
4) ActFast Delivery Company
Thanks and congratulation.
Sincerely,
Mrs Ngozi Franka
INTERNET SUPPER MEGA JACKPOT LOTTO PLUS INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS
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Anti-fraud resources:
