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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "from the desk of" (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 mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- 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.
- mapfre.seguross@consultant.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Lotto Board" <bernardocruz006@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2016 16:05:29 -0000
Subject: AWARD NOTIFICATION
>From the desk of the Vice President
International promotions / Prize award dept.
Euromilliones Lottery Office Spain,
62 CALLE \ San Vicente paul 1 EOD 50001, Spain.
Attn:Winner,
This is to notify you of your unclaimed Euromilliones lottery
winning.Your name and email was attached to the ticket Lucky
numbers 13-15-16-21-34-36 which won you the lottery. You had
been approved for the sum of €815,950.00 (EIGHT HUNDRED AND
FIFTEEN THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND FIFTY EUROS) This is from
total cash prize of €10,468,770.00 (TEN MILLION FOUR HUNDRED
AND SIXTY EIGHT THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY EUROS)
shared among international winners
To begin your claim contact your agent with the following information:
(1) Full Name ............................................
(2) City / State ...................................
(3) Address. .............................................
(4) Occupation ............................................
(5) Telephone number ....................................
(6) Sex............................................
(7) Age........................................
(8) Fax number ........................................
Agents Name: Don Bernardo Cruz
Office Email:Mapfre.seguross@consultant.com
Office Telephone:+34 652 651 6622
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Anti-fraud resources:
