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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:
- "fondazione di vittorio" (not involved with lotteries)
- 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: "Fondazione Di Vittorio" <info@correo.ccs.net.mx>
Reply-To: directaccessdeptfdv1@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2010 04:30:38 -0600
Subject: ITALIA DONATION
Fondazione Di Vittorio, ITALIA DONATION
Batch No:...N-222-6747 E-900-56
Congratulations The Fondazione Di Vittorio has chosen you by
the board of trustees as one of the final recipients of a cash
Grant/Donation for your own personal educational and business development.
To celebrate the 31st anniversary 2010 program We are giving out a yearly
donation of USD$500 000.00 to 10 lucky recipients as charity donations.
PAYMENT VERIFICATION FORM
Full Name:.........
Home Address:......
Occupation:........
Telephone:.........
Number:............
Sex:...............
Age:...............
Batch No:...N-289-1147 E-0234-56
You are to send a scan copy of your Driver's Licence or International Passport as an
attachment.
A BRIEF EXPLANATION, HOW DO YOU INTEND TO USE YOUR DONATION
FUNDS IN IMPROVING YOUR STANDARD OF LIVING.
Note that you are to send your information to the email below and also preview our
website for further informations regarding your donations
Finally, all funds should be claimed by their respective
beneficiaries, no later than 21 days after notification mail.
Mr Rupee Sanchez
E-Mail:fdvdonationdept.ng@w.cn
http://www.fondazionedivittorio.it
Foundazion Di Vittorio ® Copyright © 2010.All right reserved
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Anti-fraud resources:
