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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "australian lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
- "international lottery programme" (no such lottery exists)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "hundred thousand 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)
- ",500,000" (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.
- +447045796025 (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.
- director_jamesmorgan@hotmail.com
Fraud email example:
From: "S.A Award Result Notification." <erikalrosen1@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:40:31 -0500
Subject: CONGRATULATION!!!YOUR EMAIL HAS WON($1.500.000.00USD)
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN LOTTERY INC,
ST JAMES AND PICCADILLY STREET,
208 PICCADILLY LONDON WIA 2 DG
UNITED KINGDOM.
23/01/2009
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are delighted to inform you that your e-mail
just won One Million five hundred thousand United
States Dollars (1,500,000.00) in cash credit file
Ref: ILP/HW 47509/02 in the Australian International
Lottery programmed organized, fully based on electronic
selection of winners using their e-mail addresses from
some site.
Kindly contact our payment office with the information
below for your onward payment, quote your reference,
Ticket number; 17212, Serial number, 7741137002
Ref: 475061725, Batch: 7056490902/188, as well as your
full name, address and telephone number to help
locate your file easily.
NAME OF AGENT: JAMES MORGAN
EMAIL: director_jamesmorgan@hotmail.com
OR revjamesmorgan@ymail.com,
Phone Number: +44 70457 96025
Congratulations once again on your winnings!!!
Best Regards,
Mrs. Julie Van Hans,
(VICE PRESIDENT).
Anti-fraud resources:
