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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- ",000,000" (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)
- "keep this confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a 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!
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- unitednations.organization3@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "United Nations Online coordinator" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <chrisomar47@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:31:37 +0800
Subject: Dear Beneficiary...
Dear Beneficiary
You have won the sum of 1,000,000 USD (One Million USD) from United Nations Organization lottery program on our 2010 charity bonanza. The winning ticket was selected
from a Data Base of Internet E-mail Users, from which your Email Address came out as the winning coupon. Quickly contact the claims agent with the details below;
E-mail: unitednations.organization3@gmail.com
Tel:+60163814203
Fill the following;
Names:
Sex:
Age:
Marital status:
Occupation:
Telephone:
Country of resident:
Nationality:
Also take note that your funds has been withdraw from alliance bank for security reasons and deposited with a reputable bank that will provide with codes to access
your winning prizes online. The board took the decision to make it easy for you to claim your prize within three business working days. We advise that you keep this
confidential until you claim your funds.
On behalf of the United Nations staff, Congratulations once again.
Sincerely,
Charles Ampang
United Nations Online coordinator.
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Anti-fraud resources:
