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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)
- ",500,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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: BMW Dealership <anti.fraudagency002@gmail.com>
Reply-To: bmwcooperate@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2021 09:20:41 +0100
Subject: Dear Winner
Congratulations!!!
The Board of Directors, members of staff BMW Group and the International
Awareness Promotion Dept. wishes to congratulate you on your success as one
of our TEN(10) STAR PRIZE WINNERS in this years' BMW Automobile
International Awareness Promotion.
This makes you the proud owner of a Brand New 2021 BMW X6 Series and a
Cashier Check of $4,500,000.00 ( Four Million five hundred thousand
United States Dollars) The
car comes with a special BMW Insurance Cover for a year.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in our
computerized email selection system (ESS) from a database of over
250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world
which you were selected. However, no
tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different
ticket numbers for representation and privacy.
The BMW Lottery is approved by the United States Gaming Board and also
Licensed by the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR).
To begin the Claim processing of your prize you are to contact our
fiduciary claims department.
Reply by providing your ACCESS CODE: 87900XX19 and PIN CODE:ITACP 0922
Reply with your full name, Residential address and Phone Number to
verify your profile and process
your winning for delivery. Hoping to read from you ASAP.
Congratulations once again
MR. NORBERT REITHOFER
THE DIRECTOR PROMOTIONS
BMW AUTOMOBILE DEALERSHIP
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Anti-fraud resources:
