|
|
joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
|
|
"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.
- 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.
- awardclaims48@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: awardclaims48@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:36:33 +0700
Subject: Thanks for contributing to our Financial Success
Dear Winner,
We are pleased to inform you of the final announcement of the YAHOO
LOTTERY end of the year Online Promotion held on August,2010.This is the
last as we are about distributing winnings to winners.Your email address
was attached to Reference NumberUK/9420X2/68 was picked as one of the ten
winning email addresses.This has qualified you to claim the total cash
prize Of 500,000(Five hundred thousand Pound Sterling) in cash credited to
file KTU/9023118308/03. This is from a total cash prize of ?7,534,370.00
shared amongst the first ten (10) winners in this category.
CLAMS PROCESSING FORM FOR FILLING OF CLAIMS.
1.Name:
2.Age:
3.Sex:
4.Occupation:
5.Country:
6.Address:
7.Phone No:
8.Winning Email Address:
Send your reply to the email below.
Email: claims: awardclaims48@yahoo.com.hk
Robert McMullin
Online Co-ordinator
|
Anti-fraud resources:
