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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:
- "we advice you" (this email uses bad English)
- "barr." (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- "unitedn@yahoo.cn" (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: "Barr. Ben Morgan" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <unitedn@yahoo.cn>
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:48:09 -0700
Subject: United Nations Compensation Award 2012.
United Nations Compensation Award 2012.
Greetings to you,
SCAMMED VICTIM/ $500.000.00.USD BENEFICIARIES.
REF/PAYMENTS CODE: ECB/06654.
On behalf of the US National Sweepstake Compensation Award,we wish to inform you of the results of the comprehensive web email search and wish
to notify you as a beneficiary of $500.000.00.USD in compensation as a scam victim. This is to bring to your notice that we are delegated from the
US Washington,Dc National Sweepstake Compensation Award in World Bank to pay 150 victims of scam $500.000.00.USD each.
You are listed and approved for this payment as one of the scammed victims to be paid this amount.This Award was promoted and sponsored by a
conglomerate of some multinational companies in Asia,Africa,Europe and America as part of their social responsibility to the citizens in the
communities where they have operational base. We advice you to keep your winning information confidential until your claim has been processed and
your money remitted to you as this is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this programme.
Contact Me today with the following details below to proceed with your fund delivery.
[1] Full Names:________________
[2] Contact address________________
[3] Direct Telephone No:___________________
|4| Occupation : ____________________________
Name: Barr. Ben Morgan
Email:(unitedn@yahoo.cn)
Yours Faithfully,
Barr. Ben Morgan
UNITED NATIONS FUND MONITORING OFFICER.
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Anti-fraud resources:
