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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.
- 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)
- 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.
- patrickkenny559@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "ELIZABETH MAQUES" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <patrickkenny559@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2018 07:17:11 -0700
Subject: Lucky Winner,Please confirm if you are DEAD or still Alive.
FROM: THE DESK OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
THE MEGA MILLION LOTTERY DRAW/PRIZE AWARD DEPT
REF NUMBER: OBC/VC/0999/171
BATCH NUMBER: SPA/2018-1945W
TEL: 01134603171599
FINAL AWARD NOTIFICATION:
Lucky Winner,
We are writhing to know if it's true that you are DEAD. Because we received
a notification from one Mr. John Flowers from your country stating that you
are DEAD and that you have giving him the right to claim your funds. He
stated you died on a CAR accident. He has been calling us regarding this
issue, but we cannot proceed with him until we confirm this by not hearing
from you after 7 working days. Be advised that we have made all arrangements
for you to receive and confirm your winning funds without any more stress and
this is a tax-free draw.
All we need is to confirm if you are DEAD or still Alive. Because this
persons message brought shock to our minds. And we just can't proceed with
him until we confirm if this is a reality OR not but if it happened we did
not hear from you after 7 days, then we say: MAY YOUR SOUL REST IN PERFECT
PEACE"
Please Note: If You find this email in your spam/junk is due to low network.
YOUR JOY AND SUCCESS REMAINS OUR GOAL.
May the peace of the Lord be with you wherever you may be now.
BEST REGARDS,
YOURS SINCERE
ELIZABETH MAQUES
GENERAL SECRETARY
TEL: 01134603171599
E-mail: patrickkenny559@gmail.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
