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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:
- "hundred thousand united states 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)
- 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: "Microsoft Online" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <msnonlinelott0@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2020 06:10:31 -0800
Subject: You Have Won..Congratulation
MICROSOFT ONLINE INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY
15010 NE 36th St. Redmond, WA 98052
Tel. + (+1) 813-580-7544
FINAL DRAW NOTIFICATION.
We happily announce and formally bring to your notice the Draw #927 of JANUARY, 2020.
This is a free online promotional Draw to promote the play of lottery games and promote internet based web mail and programs with microsoft (MSN) .Also it is the largest ever poverty alleviation program.
Your e-mail address was attached to ticket (#723) which drew the lucky winning number (09-15-21-27-33-39) in the Free online Lottery promotional Draw Category. Your e-mail and many others were selected from an online computer ballot system through the world wide web (w.w.w) and was attached to various free ticket.Your e-mail attached to ticket 723 was eventually selected as a lucky winner.This makes you one of the (10) Lucky winner.You have therefore been awarded the Lump sum pay of $500, 000.00 ( FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS ).
To claim Your Winning, you are to fill the clearance and verification form Below to our claims department.
CLAIMS / VERIFICATION FORM
Full name:
Address :
Occupation :
Sex:
Telephone number:
Date of Birth :
Country :
Winning number :
CLAIMS DEPARTMENT E-mail: claims_microsoftonlinelottery@dispostable.com
Congratulations once more.
DAGEN HARTS.
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Anti-fraud resources:
