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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "microsoft corp world lottery" (no such lottery exists)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million british 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)
- "u.k " (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 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.
- +27785284009 (South Africa, 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.
- francismomoh@katamail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: lawrance smith <lawrancesmith_27@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 06:47:04 +0200
Subject: CONGRATULATION!!! YOUR E-MAIL HAS WON
We happily announce to you the draw (#953) of the MICROSOFT CORP WORLD LOTTERY AWARD International programs held in U.K your "email address have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of GBP 1,000,000 (ONE MILLION BRITISH POUNDS Sterling) in cash credited to file MSW-L/200-26937, This is from a total cash prize of £25,000,000 shared among the (25) Twenty-Five lucky winners in this 2nd category. !!HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE!! Simply contact our fiduciary Claim Agent in South Africa where your payment is zoned with the below information's
NAME: ADDRESS: NATIONALITY: SEX: AGE: PHONE/MOBILE: FAX: COMPANY: OCCUPATION: FILE NUMBER:
MR. FRANCIS MOMOH
TEL: +27 78 528 4009
Email: francismomoh@katamail.com
Our special thanks and gratitude to BILL GATES and his associates. We wish you the best of luck as you spend your good fortune in this season. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your cash prize is processed and your winning money remitted to your nominated account.
NB: PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL BECAUSE YOU MIGHT NOT BE ATTENDED TO, KINDLY CONTACT YOUR FIDUCIARY AGENT DIRECTLY FOR FURTHER DIRECTIONS.
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