|
|
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:
- 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:
- "cocacola_event_2010@live.com" (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: Coca Cola Bottling Company <szafa@enternet.hu>
Reply-To: cocacola_event_2010@live.com
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:52:44 +0200
Subject: Congratulations Email User
COCA COLA BOTTLING COMPANY. #46 Kempshott Road, London, SW16 5LQ
United Kingdom. Ref: XYL / 26510460037/05 Batch: 24/00319/IZP
Winning number:PL/09788/60 Congratulations Email User 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
year 2010 Lottery promotion which is organized by Coca Cola Bottling
Company. This program is aimed to encourage you to petronize our
products and also help uplift families financial status around the
globe, hence Coca Cola Bottling Company only select five people every
year as our winners through electronic balloting System without the
winner applying. Kindly fill the following information and send to
our event management for verification, to enable you claim your
winning prize amount. Contact below email with your information.
Claims Processing Manager: Mr. Garry Davis E-mail:
cocacola_event_2010@live.com Full Name: Contact Address: Age:
Direct Contact Number: Sex/Gender: Occupation: Country:
Nationality : Cordially, Miss. Johan Robinson Coca Cola Online
Co-ordinator
|
Anti-fraud resources:
