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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.
- 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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "fiduciary 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 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.
- parkerjerem44@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "SHELL OIL INTERNATIONAL" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <parkerjerem44@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:22:04 -0800
Subject: SHELL OIL AWARDS!! (FIND THE ATTACHED FILE)congrat's
SHELL OIL INTERNATIONAL
SHELL OIL AWARDS INT'L,
Date:22Th FEB 2010
We are delighted to inform you that your email address has luckily emerged as a winner of the Shell Petroleum Development Company Promotion and has won you $800.000.00 usd For claims, send your winning code(344521) to (Dr Jeremy Parker) your fiduciary agent by e-mail-(parkerjerem44@yahoo.com) with the information
stated below to validate your claims:
1.FULL NAMES OF BENEFICIARY.....................
2.RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS .............................
3.DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:..............................
4.PHONE/FAX NUMBERS:.............................
5.NAME/AND ADDRESS OF NEXT OF KIN:........................
6.SEX:.................................
7.OCCUPATION:.....................................
8.MARITAL STATUS:................................
9.AMOUNT WON:...............................
10.WINNING EMAIL:..................................
11.NATIONALITY:.....................................
NOTE: Your personal information should be sent to (parkerjerem44@yahoo.com)
as email/your information sent to any other address will not be attended too, take note.
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Anti-fraud resources:
