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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:
- "million british pounds" (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)
- "foreignservice_manager@live.co.uk" (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: "MICROSOFT CORPORATION LOTTERY." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <foreignservice_manager@live.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:06:49 -0000
Subject: OFFICIAL AWARD NOTIFICATION.
Facebook Corporations:
Customer Service
Wrights Lane,
Kensington London W85SP,
England
UNITED KINGDOM
FILE REF: HL/5564/06/09/MICS
BATCH: MC11/835/5PDH /EU
Attn:
We are please to announce to you on this day 15th FEBRUARY 2011, on our JANUARY Annual Facebook Lottery Award.
You have now won One Million British pounds sterling through our Computer ballot system.
You are now adviced to contact our agent Mrs Veronica Woods for verification and processing of your fund via Email to:
E-mail: foreignservice_manager@live.co.uk
with your winning data :
1) Full names :
2) Your full home / office address :
3) Nationality :
4) Direct Land/Mobile phone/fax numbers :
5) Occupation / Age :
6) Sex :
7) Next of kin :
8) Valid Email
Sincerely,
Mr.Tom Huddle
Facebook Security Department.
© 2003 - 2011 Facebook Inc. All rights reserved.
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Anti-fraud resources:
