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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:
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "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 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.
- +447024084588 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- 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.
- bonniemorrison340@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Durr, Kristin" <KDurr@arcadia.edu>
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 11:23:10 -0400
Subject: Contact Name: Mr. Morrison Bonnie
Company No. 02949433
SERIAL NUMBER: 5368/02
TICKET NUMBER: 8603775966738
Batch Number: 074/05/ZY369
Ref Number: UK/9420X/05
WINNING NOTIFICATION
We are pleased to inform you of the final announcement that you are
one of our beginning of the year winners of the UNITED KINGDOM ONLINE
PROMO AWARDS, held on 28th sep ,2008. You have won for your self a total sum of
£1,200,000 POUNDS STERLING.
However, no tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to
different ticket numbers for representation and privacy.The selection
process was
carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection
machine(TOPAZ) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from
all the continents of the world.
Please you are adviced to complete the form and send it immediately to
0Aour from the designated bank.
Fill the below informations and send to the fiduciary agent for your
Claims verification:
FILL THE CLAIMS FORM BELOW AND SEND
TO OUR CLAIMS AGENT FOR VERIFICATION
1. Full Names:
2. Address:
3. Age:
4. Sex:
5. Marital Status:
6. Occupation:
7. Phone numbers:
8. Country:
Name: Mr. Morrison Bonnie
e-mail: bonniemorrison340@gmail.com
Tell-+447024084588
Yours Truly,
Co-ordinator(Online Promo Programme)
Anti-fraud resources: