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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "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)
- "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)
- ",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)
- 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 mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +31616941206 (Netherlands, prepaid mobile phone)
- 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.
- surfclaims_agent101@yahoo.de (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Van Barsel <coordinator00001@hotmail.co.uk>
Reply-To: <surfclaims_agent101@yahoo.de>
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:51:46 +0000
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION...!!!!
INTERNATIONAL WORLDWIDE INTERNET USER LOTTERY
Attn:
Congratulations for your lottery winning for surfing the internet and this promotion is been organized by various Internet Service Providers (ISP) all over the word who in turn remit surplus funds to the numerous World Wide Internet Technology Companies (WWITC) for the development and advancement of Global Information Technology.
After the automated computer ballot, your E-mail address emerged as a winner in the category "A" with the following numbers attached:
Ref Number: PW EH 9590 OG 0612,
Batch Number: PA 563881545-NL/2007.
You and other category “A” winners are therefore to receive a cash prize of Two Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($2.5,000,000.00) respectively from the total payout of One Hunfred Million US Dollars earmarked in the lottery for category “A” winners.
We advice that you call in our office for confirmation of this email notification so we advice you on how to process and claim your prize since we have been given a mandate for all winners to claim their prize withing 5 business days.
CLAIMS AGENT.Name: Pierce Van BarselPhone: +316-169-41206 Email: surfclaims_agent101@yahoo.de
Yours Faithfully,Helen Wilson.Lottery Coordinator.Thank you and congratulations!!!
(WWWITC).
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