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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:
- "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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "claimsdept-msn@outlook.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- "claimsdept-msn@outlook.com" (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: "Annemie Janse Van Rensburg" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <claimsdept-msn@outlook.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 18:10:22 -0700
Subject: Congratulations!! SKYPE LUCKY STAR
Congratulations!! SKYPE LUCKY STAR
We are pleased to inform you that your name appear on the Skype Lottery Promotion held in South Africa and we are giving out the total sum of $1,000,000 USD (ONE MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS) which is what you have just won.
Ref: 001276397
Winning no: SK/938/16PE
Your name was selected in a raffle by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrm (CEO and founder of Skype) this July 2014, so we need your fast response to enable us to proceed with the payment. The promotion was made to make all Skype Users benefit from the profits made by the company and to serve as a sign of appreciation to our Skype Users. Also to help people to fight off poverty and to maintain the standard of living.
You are advised to contact our Director of Communication/Public Affairs with your Reference and winning number through the email provided below so that they can proceed with the process to make your money available to you as soon as possible.
Name: Agent Debbie Frost (Director of Comm./Public Affairs)
Tel:+27 61-992-1120
Email : claimsdept-msn@outlook.com
REPLY ONLY TO (claimsdept-msn@outlook.com)
Congratulations !!!
Thank you.
Annemie Janse Van Rensburg (Product Marketing)
Skype 2014
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Anti-fraud resources:
