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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "the bmw automobile company" (no such lottery exists)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "required fee " (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. )
- "million 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)
- 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: "Mr. Gabrel" <anthnygabrial@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mrgabrel91@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2021 22:18:29 +0100
Subject: Attention Dear beneficiary
The BMW Automobile Company, congratulate you as one of our ten(10)
star prize winner in our 2021 End of Year International Awareness
Promotion (I.A.P) held in London
=====================================================
OUR Reference: BMW 2021/18513-22
OUR Batch: 27/00529/BMW.
DEAR LUCKY WINNER,
This is to inform you that you have been selected for a prize of a
BRAND NEW 2021 MODEL BMW and a check of 9.7 million US Dollars for the
BMW End of Year Lottery Promotion which was organized by the BMW
Automobile Company. Your Email address was selected by the Microsoft
Corporation which always supplied this Company with THOUSANDS of Email
Addresses of Active internet Users Yearly. And your Email address was
submitted as one of the Active internet users for the Year 2021. After
Email Addresses are been submitted to us for the Random selection By
Microsoft Corporation, we select ten(10) people as our winners,
through Electronic Balloting System without t.
Winner applying: These are your Identification number:
Ticket Number: 07923425896/2021
Lucky Number: 7/4/11/58/01/30
Serial Number: BMWP/55643450906
Your package will be delivered to you once you comply with your valid
delivery address and the required fee of $500.
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Anti-fraud resources:
