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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:
- "fudiciary" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million united state dollars" (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)
- ",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)
- "u.k " (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: =?iso-8859-1?Q?=22Free_Lotto=AE=22?= <info@freelotto.org>
Reply-To: freelotto2012@ovi.com
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:50:27 +0200
Subject: You Have Been Selected Winner!!
It is obvious that this notification will come to you as a surprise but
please find time to read it carefully as we congratulate you over your
success in the following official publication of results of the E-mail
electronic online Sweepstakes organized by Free Lotto Uk.
Your email ID was awarded $2,000,000.00 (Two Million United State Dollars) in
the freelotto 2012 Jackpot draw ! Get back to us
via:Email:freelotto2012@ovi.com
Click on the website link below to view the photo page of some
of our recent lucky winners.
http://www.freelotto.com/ThisWeeksWinners.asp FreeLotto Winning Draw
Results for
16th of April,2012
To file for your claim, please contact your fudiciary agent immediately
via the email below: Mr. Williams Ford
(Freelotto Fiduciary Department)
82 Victoria Street
Victoria London SW1 U.K
Email:freelotto2012@ovi.com
======================================================================
Provide him with these following details with which he will begin the
processing
of your winnings.
1.Name in full.
2.Address.
3.Nationality.
4.Age.
5.Occupation.
6.Phone No.
7.Present Country.
8.Fax [optional].
9.Email address.
10.Sex.
Once again congratulations.
Sincerely,
Kevin J. Aronin
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Anti-fraud resources:
