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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:
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "hundred thousand us 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)
- "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)
- 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.
- radclifftucson@gmail.com (Gmail/GoogleMail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: Vicky Joseph <vickyseph@gmail.com>
Reply-To: vikyjoseph@yahoo.ca
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2015 11:20:35 +0000
Subject: Dear Lucky Winner
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Dear Lucky Winner
Congratulation to you and your family, we wish to notify you that your
email address have been selected as one of the lucky winner this year award
promotion on Date 8th of June 2015, as we celebrate our 17th anniversary
been in existence, we the board of directors have giving balloting system
award lottery promotion, out of millions email that was putting in a
balloting box your email address was pick up first which make you the lucky
winner of Glo International Automobile Network Group of Company , you have
won $500,000.00 Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars from Glo International
automobiles Network company World Wide
Your winning pin codes is
1.Ref Code (ILP/HW47509/02)
2.BATCH NO: (05/763638/IHD)
3.Winning No: - (0763)
You are advised to contact your Claim Agent in our Asia regional
Branch in United Arab Emirate Dubai where you’re winning balloting
Numbers fall in for payment. Please kindly Contact Dr Radcliff Tucson. Via
e-mail
(radclifftucson@gmail.com) or Tel: (+971555844743) for the processing and
Payment of your winning prize fund
Thanks for your understanding.
Mrs. Vicky Joseph
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Anti-fraud resources:
