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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.
- 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 mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +448719153132 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- 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.
- espncricketaward@yahoo.co.jp (Yahoo, Japan; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "ESPN STAR CRICKET EMPOWERMENT AWARD" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <espncricketaward@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:08:02 +0530
Subject: CLAIM YOUR WINNING PRIZE
ESPN STAR CRICKET EMPOWERMENT AWARD
Ref: ZA/144132/1211
Batch: 22/523009/LHINT
AWARD NOTIFICATION
Your email have won the Espn Star Cricket Empowerment Award. We wish to
Inform you of the lottery draws held on the 18th of Feb 2012 to declare
the winners of the Jackpot of GBP 750.000.00.(Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand
British Pounds)
Your email was randomly selected from all webmail database around the world
to select a winner for the month of February 2012.
To begin your claim process, please contact your claims manager with
details below and also provide the information listed below to the officer
for expedition of your claim process.
NAME:
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COUNTRY:
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ADDRESS:
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OCCUPATION:
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GENDER:
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AGE:
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CITY:
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STATE/PROV:
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ZIP/POSTAL CODE:
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PHONE:
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FAX:
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EMAIL:
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REF NUMBER:
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BATCH NUMBER:
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Mr. Richard Briggs.
EMAIL: espncricketaward@yahoo.co.jp
Tel: +44 871 915 3132
Fax: +44 870 471 9707
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Anti-fraud resources:
