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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")
- "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.
- +447031949899 (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.
- michaelstelzel918@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Ta Quang Nghia" <tqnghia@mic.gov.vn>
Reply-To: michaelstelzel918@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2009 04:19:53 +0700
Subject: CONFIRM YOUR WINNING SUM (15 MILLION EURO)
SKL/Collomix Lotto-GmbH, Postfach 11 46 85078 Gaimersheim
website:http://www.skl.de/
Sir/Madam,
CONGRATULATIONS: YOU WON 15,000.000.00 Euros
We are pleased to inform you of the result of Skl national lottery which
Your e-mail address attached to Reference Number: SKL/162009/OMI.Please
note that your lucky winning number falls within our European booklet
representative office in London.
You are advice to contact your claim officer with the following details
Contact: Mr Michael Stelzel
FIDUCIARY AGENT, Payment and Release order
Email: michaelstelzel918@gmail.com
Tel :+44 703 194 9899
NAME:
ADDRESS:
AMOUNT WON:
COUNTRY:
PHONE NUMBER:
AGE:
SEX:
OCCUPATION:
Sincerely,
Mrs Vanessa Svensson
Online Coordinator
Anti-fraud resources:
