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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:
- 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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "yahoo lottery inc" (no such lottery exists)
- "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:
- "maxwinters@rcweb.net" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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!
Fraud email example:
From: "Msn/Yahoo Lottery Incorporation" <info2@msn.com>
Reply-To: maxwinters@advir.com
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:24:30 -0000 (GMT)
Subject: Msn/Yahoo Lottery Promotion..... Winning number.....YM09788
Msn/Yahoo Lottery Incorporation
PO Box 1010,Liverpool L70 1NL,
United Kingdom.
=========================
Ref: XYL /26510460037/05
Batch: 24/00319/IPD
Dear Guaranteed Winner
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of seven hundred and
fifty thousand Great Britain Pound Sterlings (£750,000.00) for the month
of APRIL 2010 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 manager for claims These are your identification
numbers:
Batch number.....................YM09102XN
Reff number.......................YM35447XN
Winning number...................YM09788
How ever you will have to fill and submit your contact informations to
event manager below:
1. Full name..............
2. Contact Address........
3. Age....................
4. Telephone Number.......
5. Sex....................
6. Occupation...................
7. State:.................
8. Country................
{CONTACT EVENTS MANAGER}
Name: Mr.MAX WINTERS
E-mail: maxwinters@rcweb.net
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Anti-fraud resources:
