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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:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- 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:
- "claim 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.
- +447024081642 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: UK National Lottery <info@lottery.org>
Reply-To: dept@w.cn
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:00:55 +0800
Subject: YOU HAVE WON =?iso-8859-1?b?ozUyNSwwMDAuMDA=?= GBP.
Dear Internet User,
This is to officially inform you that you have been selected among our recent
winners on the UK National Lottery, for claims and details as regard your
winning you are to follow instructions as indicated below.
Your email address among Nine others were selected randomly after a ballot
election done electronically, you are therefore decleared a winner of
£525,000.00 GBP (Five Hundred and Twenty five Thousand Pounds)
Meanwhile for claims you are to contact Mr. Bryan Scott as your claim agent
with the informations below.
************************************
Mr. Bryan Scott
Tel: +447024081642
E-mail: processing@w.cn
************************************
Meanwhile it is mandatory that you fill the form below and send it to (Mr.
Bryan Scott)
1) FULL NAME
2) AGE:
3) SEX
4) PHONE NUMBER:
5) COUNTRY:
6) OCCUPATION:
YOUR WINNING CREDENTIALS
Winning Number: 01500680030537-42535
Batch Number: UKNL/eun/zz10
Ref Number: Rus/o1006.aa
Once again conratulations from members and staff of the National
Lottery Board.
Sincearely
Mrs. Linda Rice
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Anti-fraud resources:
