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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:
- ",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)
- 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.
- +34695046160 (Spain, prepaid mobile phone)
Fraud email example:
From: worldwidelotto@mchsi.com (Sweeps Stake Lottery International)
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:45:15 +0000
Subject: Contact Mr. Luis Garcia
Attention Lucky Winner,
Please contact Mr.Luis Garcia for the claim of €1,000,000.00(One million euros)
only which your email ID won in the Elgordo de la Primitiva lottery of Spain
with ticket number (18457SP),Ref number:ESP-L/200-26937,Batch number:ES-2007MJL-01,
Serial number:S/N-00168.
This was from a software ballot of 500,000 email address across
the world and No Ticket was sold.
It is a computer innovation programme sponsored by software and electronic
companies.
For more information and payment enquires,please contact;Mr.Luis Garcia,
Tel:+34-695-046-160,FAX:+34-911-311-763. Email:fundsclaimdept@ozu.es
Best regards,
Mrs. Rosalia Lopez.
Elgordo de la Primitiva {Coordinator}
Anti-fraud resources:
