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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:
- "microsoft mega jackpot lottery" (no such lottery exists)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "barr." (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- 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: "MICROSOFT CORPORATION INC" <info@info.com>
Reply-To: micros_claimsdepartment@v1va.net
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 13:47:25 -0000 (GMT)
Subject: Bonanza of Year 2010
The Microsoft Mega Jackpot Lottery, United Kingdom wishes to inform you
that the results of our 2010 End of Year Annual Bonanza Lottery
International Program held in Great Britain is out. Your e-mail account
have been picked as a certified winner of a lump sum pay out of
£1,550,952.00.(One Million Five Hundred And Fifty Thousand Nine Hundred
And Fifty Two Pounds Sterling) credited to MICRO (LOTTERY) CHIP
NO:9465206. The winning ticket was selected from a Data Base of Internet
E-mail Users,from which your Address came out as the winning coupon in
this category "A" ballot lottery. You are therefore required to contact
our Claims Department with the details below quoting your winning
number:MICRO (LOTTERY) CHIP NO:9465206 for validation:
You are to contact the Claims Consultant with the details below:
Contact Person: Barr. Nicholas Caldwell.
E-mail : micros_claimsdepartment@v1va.net
THE BENEFICIARY/OWNER OF THE WINNING E-MAIL SHOULD COMPLETE OUR CLAIMS FORM.
FILL THE INFORMATION BELOW:
Name:
Age
Sex:
Marital Status:
Tel/Fax:
Address:
Occupation:
Yours Sincerely,
Dr. (Mrs) Elizabeth Andre
Official Spokesperson and Director of Communications Microsoft Mega
Jackpot Lottery
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Anti-fraud resources:
