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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:
- "uk national lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
- 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.
- +447010033892 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: <claimsgroup8909@live.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:59:20 +0800
Subject: CLAIMS INFORMATION
Dear: e-Mail Winner,
The Uk National Lottery has set out and successfully organized a Sweepstakes marking the beginning of year anniversary. We rolled out over 10,000.000.00 (10 million e-mails) to mark the 2010 Anniversary Draws. Participants for the draws were randomly selected and drawn from a wide range of web hosts which we enjoy their BETA patronage attaching personalized email addresses to ticket numbers.
Your email address as indicated was drawn and attached to Ticket No:56475600545188 with Serial No:2113-05 and drew the lucky numbers 9-21-17-39-23-13(10) which subsequently won you 1,000,000.00 (One Million Great Britain pounds) as one of the 10 jackpot winners in this draw. To begin the processing of your prize you are to contact our fiduaciary claims department for more infomation as regards procedures to claim your prize.
Dr. Marcus Garvin
Email: Claimsgroup2010@msn.com
Telephone: +44 7010033892
Contact him by sending him with the underlisted informations
1.Full Name:
2.Full Address:
3.Status:
4.Occupation:
5.Phone Number:
6.Country:
Age:
Congratulation!!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Bubb(Mrs.)
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