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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:
- "international lottery programme" (no such lottery exists)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- 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: "=?UTF-8?B?U2FyYWggUHJhZGluaG8gQXJhw7pqbw==?=" <info@eurolotto.com>
Reply-To: claims@europlotto.com
Date: 26 Sep 2023 05:39:46 +0100
Subject: Euro Million Lottery
Attention:
The Euro Million Lottery Commission are happy to inform you of
our 2023 International Lottery Programme held on the 5th of June
2023 of all participants were selected through a computer ballot
system drawn from Six Million names from North and South America,
Europe, Asia and South Pacific, as part of the New Year
International promotion program. Your Ticket number EM-
8109200443, serial number 754-394-245 and drew lucky numbers 49-
73-93-09-07 which consequently won in the 2ND category.
You are required to contact your claim agent Sir Francisco Filipe
Dias El Silva. He will guide you and ensure you get your
winnings. Remember to quote your reference and lucky number in
all correspondence.
Due to false practices, we ask that you keep your award
information strictly from public notice, until your claim has
been processed and your winnings remitted as this is part of our
security protocol to avoid double claiming or unwarranted abuse
of this program by unscrupulous individuals.
Congratulations once again!!!
Sincerely Yours,
Mrs Sarah Pradinho Araújo
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Anti-fraud resources:
