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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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "from: the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million dollars" (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)
- "tyfaulkner@mail.mn" (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: "ATLAS Promo" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <tyfaulkner@mail.mn>
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 20:07:06 +0200
Subject: RE: AWARD NOTIFICATION
FROM: THE DESK OF THE PROMOTIONS MANAGER.
ATLAS PROMOTIONS / PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT
REF NUMBER: 3177849330/10.
BATCH NUMBER: 50/0112/INTL.
RE/AWARD NOTIFICATION
After a successful completion of the 2nd category draws of ATLAS Promo, we are pleased to inform you of the announcement today that you are among other two persons winning in the second category that became a winner with the winning ticket number, 467-8943-78-090 which was attached to your e-mail address. Several Internet users e-mail addresses in the last ten years were extracted from the world wide web and after careful filtration yours was found valid in that it is up to date before being used for the draws. As a winner in this 2nd category you are therefore entitled to a sum of one million dollars($1m) now available for claim.
To begin your claim process contact the claims agent,
Name:- TERRY FAULKNER
e-mail:- tyfaulkner@mail.mn
Your instrument of payment as well as a copy of this notification has been sent ahead to the claim agent who, after verifying that you are the actual owner/user of the e-mail address that won the draws, shall instruct the paying bank for the release of your winning claims.
Note that the claim process is not expected to last longer than two weeks from the date of contacting the claim agent.
Accept our congratulations!
Yours sincerely,
GARY FALLON
MANAGING DIRECTOR
(ATLAS PROMO)
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Anti-fraud resources:
