|
|
joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
|
|
"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:
- "from: the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "clearance document" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- ",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)
- 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: "FACEBOOK LOTTERY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <facebookclaimdepartment3@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2015 22:38:34 -0700
Subject: FACEBOOK ONLINE INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY
FACEBOOK ONLINE INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY
FROM: THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT.
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS / PRIZE AWARD.
CATEGORY: 2ND
Dear Winner,
I’m Patrick wood the Managing Director and Promo Coordinator for the Facebook Online International Lottery.Your name was selected by Mr Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of Face book (Founder & Chief Executive Officer )and the promotion was made to make all face book user benefit from the gain of the Company,The company Named (face book) is the first and ever largest means of meeting both old and new friends. We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded end of the year annual draws of The FACEBOOK INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY AWARD (F.I.L.A). The Cyber lottery draws was conducted from an exclusive list of 21,000,000 e-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies selected randomly by an advanced automated random computer balloting search on the internet.All Facebook Users are qualified to check on here to confirm their winning on here ..This is part of our way of saying Thanks to all our Facebook users. We recognized Nationally as a top and innovative leader in the l
ottery industry and a trusted and
This you should know that before we can proceed with your winnings i would like you to provide to this office some vital information's that would be needed for the processing of your payment clearance.
Just to let you know that transparency is the legacy of this department. below is the information's needed to process your payment and other documents:
Full Name:
Full Home address:
Country: :
Age:
Occupation:
Mobile Number:
Email Address:
Once i can have this details forwarded to me, i will quickly work on how to obtain the clearance document in your name.
I awaits your swift response back here.
CONGRATULATIONS ONCE AGAIN FROM FACE BOOK!
M/D Patrick Wood
Facebook©
Head of Claims Department and General Secretary of the CEO FACEBOOK TEAM
|
Anti-fraud resources:
