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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:
- ",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)
- "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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- 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: "ASIA PACIFIC LOTTO ORGANIZATION" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <asiapacific.org@3mail.ie>
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:25:45 +0700
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
YOU WON $1,000,000.00 UNITED STATE DOLLARS!!!
Dear Lucky Winner,
We are Pleased to inform you that your email was selected among the winning
numbers of the recently Lotto conducted from the Lotto Website and we shall
be glad if you can claim your prize, please respond to this mail within 72 hours
otherwise we will assume that you are not interested.
We conduct the Lotto using Lotto as part of our tax relief program set up by
the International Lottery Board and ASIA PACIFIC INT'L LOTTERY ORGANIZATION, on this note we
congratulate you and wish you best of luck as you claim the prize attached to this Lotto.
For more details please reconfirm your full information:
1. Full Name:________________
2. Residential Address:_______
3. Marital Status:_____________
4. Occupation: ______________
5. Age: _____________________
6. Sex: _____________________
7. Nationality: _______________
8. Country of Residence: _____
9. Telephone Number: _______
THAILAND CONTACT PERSON: MR. JERRY YOUNG.
EMAIL: asiapacific.org@3mail.ie
(Winner's directorate office)
LOTTERY CO-COORDINATOR.
Sincerely,
REF: N.EG/42275486009/16.
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