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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million pounds" (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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "you are advise to" (this email uses bad English)
- 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.
- mr.howarddesk33@hotmail.com
Fraud email example:
From: "Department Regional Headquarter (D.P.U)" <mr.howarddesk33@hotmail.com>,
" <krsna@netvigator.com>"@obav01.netvigator.com
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 23:28:06 +0800
Subject: Identification Number: {MS-246819}.
British e-mail lottery promotion/prize award
Department regional headquarter (D.P.U)
Identification Number: {MS-246819}.
1st May, 2009
Dear E-mail Bearer,
This is to inform you that your e-mail address won for you the sum of 1,000,000.00 GBP. (ONE MILLION POUNDS STERLING ) in the online version of the UK Inc e-mail web Promo.Your e-mail address was randomly selected amongst millions of e-mails in the web. Your TICKETNUMBER:208-2113-59-70.
You Are to contact (MEZRA FINANCE LIMITED) an affiliates to the fund release unit of this lottery promo with your identification and ticket number.
Contact Person: Mr. David Howard
FOREIGN DEPARTMENT MANAGER
MEZRA FINANCE LIMITED UK
E-mail: mr.howarddesk33@hotmail.com
Claims/Fiduciary Agent
NOTE: Do not reply to this e-mail. You are to contact your claims (mr.howarddesk33@hotmail.com) processor via e-mail.
WARNING!!!
YOU ARE ADVISE TO KEEP YOUR WINNINGS HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL.ANY MAIL RECIEVED OF THIS SUCH WITH ANY OTHER TRADE MARK OR ADDRESS SHOULD BE FOWARDED TO YOUR CLAIMS PROCESSOR IMMEDIATELY, THIS WILL HELP US TO FIGHT SCAM AND LOTTERY IMPOSTERS.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ANTICIPATED CO-OPERATION.
Sincerely yours
Dr. Elea Scoffield (Mrs).
Regional Lottery Co-ordinator.
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Anti-fraud resources:
