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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 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)
- "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)
- "you are advice to " (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.
- +31643862769 (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.
- ipwlottonl0008@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: ipwlottonl0008@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:24:46 GMT
Subject: Attn: EMAIL BEARER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
website: www.lotto.nl
Batch No.998/7890/543
Ref No.512/333/765
Ticket/Series No.SPL77734
Amount Won: $2,000,000.00 USD
www.lotto.nl
Attn: EMAIL BEARER,
Upon the conclusion of our recent e-lottery draws, your email address was
selected from an exclusive list of 150,000 email addresses
generated from an internet resource database.
You are therefore to receive a cash prize of $2,000,000.00. (Two Million
United States Dollars).
To file for the processing of your prize sum payment, you are advised to
contact our Certified and Accredited claims agent for category "A"
winners with the information below:
*************************************
Mr. Densmore stewart
Email: ipwlottonl0008@yahoo.com.hk
Tel: +31-643-862-769
Fax: +31-847-375-060
www.lotto.nl
*************************************
You are advice to provide him with the following information and a copy of
your international passport or driver's license via email
attachment or by fax for vetting process which is a standard practice just
to ensure that we are dealing with the right individual.
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:
Identification I D:
NOTE: Ensure to quote your Reference Numbers in all your communication with
your claims agent. All winnings must be claimed not later than 7
days, thereafter unclaimed funds would be included in the next stake.
Remember to quote your reference information in all correspondence.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. KATHY VERO
Lottory Co-ordinator
Anti-fraud resources:
