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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- 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.
- mrcharles.martin@aol.com (AOL; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
- claim your prize. name: mr. charles martin email: mrcharles.martin@aol.com contact him with your secret pin code number (Aol; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Shirley Winifred" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrcharles.martin@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2014 14:23:29 +0300
Subject: Congratulations Dear Beneficiary on your Compensation Award
Dear Friend, I want you to know that your email have been selected among the list of emails that are to be compensated with the sum of $3.500.000.00 Three Million Five Hundred United States Dollars, The reason why the authorities have decided to do this is to compensate scam victims, lottery winners and also the people that have lost their things due to gambling and other various ways.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection system (ESS) from our data base of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continent of the world which you were selected.
The compensation award is approved by the British Gaming Board and also licensed by the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR).To begin the processing of your prize you are to contact our fiduciary claims department for more information’s as regards to claim your prize.
Name: Mr. Charles Martin
Email: mrcharles.martin@aol.com
Contact him with your secret pin code number CMP-2551256003/23
You are advised to provide him with the information’s below so that delivery can commence proper.
1. Name in full. 2. Address.
3. Nationality. 4. Age.
5. Occupation. 6. Phone.
7. Present Country. 8. Email address.
9. Pin code Number CMP:2551256003/23
10. Scan Copy of ID card.
Mrs. Shirley Winifred
mrsshirleywinifred@yahoo.co.uk
Compensation center director
Washington DC
United States.
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Anti-fraud resources:
