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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:
- The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "yahoo/msn lottery inc" (no such lottery exists)
- "yahoo/msn lottery" (no such lottery exists)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "fudiciary" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- ",500,000" (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)
- 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: YAHOO MSN LOTTERY INC <s22320688@tuks.co.za>
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:46:53 +0200
Subject:
Our Dear Winner,
We happily announce to you the draw 676 of the YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC &
WINDOWS LIVE WINNINGS program held on month of January 2012. E-mail address
attached to ticket number: 56475600545 188.
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of 2,500,000.00 TWO
MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND GREAT BRITAIN POUNDS STERLINGS in cash credited
to file KTU/9023118308/03.
These are your identification numbers:
Batch number.....................YM 09102XN
Reff number.......................YM35447XN
Winning number...................YM09788
To file for your claim, please contact our fudiciary agent:
CONTACT EVENTS MANAGER
Name:Mr.MARK BARRY
E-mail: event-official.manager.uk@xnmsn.com
Provide him with the information below:
1.Name: 2.Address:
3.Marital Status: 4.Age:
5.Sex: 7.Occupation:
8.Country : 9.Telephone Number:
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information
confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you.
Richard.K Lloyd.
Contact Email for more information.: event-official.manager.uk@xnmsn.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
