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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:
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "consultantagency@live.co.uk" (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: south East Asia Tourism <portal@cbmmg.mg.gov.br>
Reply-To: Global consultant <consultantagency@live.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:59:28 -0200 (BRST)
Subject: Winner Announcement
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South-East Asian Tourism
Organization Bureau central
1 Selegie Road, #01-01 PoMo
Singapore 188306
www.seato.org
We are pleased to announce that your e-mail address is one of the lucky winners from our computer based lottery randomly-selected draw from the 18.1 million e-mail entries registered by south East Asia Tourism online promotion.
This Tourism program is an Asia-Pacific congressionally-mandated lottery program in conjunction with United Nation commission responsible for promoting Asia Tourism products in the Asia-Pacific markets.
Winning Details:
Amount Won: cash prize of £9, 500. 000. 00
Ref No: SE/TLP/08/8011
Lucky No: 11-13-25-28-49-5
Batch No: SE/5617/IFR
Serial No: 09-11-11
Claim enquiries & feedback:
Email: consultantagency@live.co.uk
(Please indicate your name and contact number in your email to the claim agent.)
Best Regards,
Mr. Robert Johnston,
Online Promotion Coordinator
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Anti-fraud resources:
