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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- 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 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.
- eclaimdp@aol.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: EuroAward E.S <Kar17@tarre.onmicrosoft.com>
Reply-To: <eclaimdp@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 20:59:12 +0200
Subject: Results **Jackpot**
Congratulations!!!
Attention:
This email is to notify you, the releases of the Euro Millionlottery held on the 28/03/2014. You have won an award Sum of 750,240.09 €uros in Euro million lottery with the Qualification Number: 8-3-2-65-49-4-26 Ticket Number: E/945-14.
Please fill out the subsequent form completely and send it to our appointed Claims Officer: Mr. Antonio by email: eclaimdp@aol.com for your payment.
NOTE; Please quote your Qualification umber in all correspondence with the claim/paying agent above to enable the process of your winning (2). Indicate
your;
Full Name:
Direct phone:
Date of Birth / Age:
Occupation:
Country/State:
With your Qualification numbers and Ticket Number to your claim/paying agent above.
Please note that the validity period of these winning is 21 working days; hence you are expected to make your claims immediately. Any claim not made before this date will lead to disqualification and funds returned to the Lottery Game Board as unclaimed.
We wish you the best of luck as you spend your good fortune.
Congratulations!!!
Mrs. Angelica L. Francisco.
Lottery Co-ordinator.
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