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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:
- "uk national lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims 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!
- 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.
- update4045@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: uk lottery<webdrawsupdate01@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:37:38 -0700
Subject: WINNINGS NOTIFICATION UPDATE
THE BRITISH NEW YEAR LOTTERY ANNOUNCMENT / 2008
We are pleased to inform you of the result of UK NATIONAL LOTTERY 2008,
which was held on Saturday February 02nd, 2008. Your e-mail address
attached TICKET NUMBER: 74454774, SERIAL NUMBER: 144-66584,with DREW
LUCKY NUMBERS: 5-21-23-34-61-72 that drawn a prize of 516,778.00 GREAT
BRITISH POUNDS
REQUIRED INFORMATION NEEDED
FULL NAME
ADDRESS
TEL
SEX
AGE
MARITAL STATUS
OCCUPATION
COUNTRY
CLAIMS AGENTS
Mr.Peter Taylor
Email: update4045@hotmail.com
YOUR SECURITY FILE REFERENCE NUMBER IS UKL/K5998/U4. (keep personal).
Remember, your winning must be claimed not later than (ONE MONTH OF
NOTIFICATION).
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs.Lucy Baines
Anti-fraud resources:
