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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:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "hundred thousand great 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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- "guinnessclaims@w.cn" (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: "Guinness Online" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <guinnessclaims@w.cn>
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 18:40:34 +0800
Subject: Prize Claim
UK Guinness Customer Service
Ref: UKG/191OX2/99
Batch: CLG74/05/MY369
We are pleased to inform you of winners of the Guinness National Lottery Program held on 10th of June 2011. Your e-mail address was attached to reference number: UKG/11801X2XX/991, emerged you as the lucky winner from this draw and it won you the total lump sum of 100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds). Be informed that know ticket was sold based on random selection exercises of database of email addresses on internet websites worldwide globes, as your email address was selected. The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection system from a data base of over 100,000 email address world-wide provided to us by Microsoft to enhance the utilization of the internet.
To file for your claims and remittance of your winning funds to you, you are advised to contact and provide our assigned claims agent officer with the following information's;
Full Name: Address: Sex:
Age: Occupation: Tel:
Country: Ref No:
Contact Name: Henry Paulson
Contact Email: guinnessclaims@w.cn
Congratulations on behalf of staffs and management of this program.
Yours Truly
Mrs. Patricia Wood
Online Co-ordination
UK Guinness Oline Lottery Program.
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Anti-fraud resources:
