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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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "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!
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <stevenho@toyotapromo.net>
Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 05:49:22 +0800
Subject: WOW!! YOU GOT A BRAND NEW CAMRY CAR
CAMRY TOYOTA
FOREIGN SERVICES MANAGER,
ASIA PACIFIC CHINA
Customer Service
Ref: MC/7146x4/99
Batch: 132/756/4007
PAYMENT TO MAKE BY ATM CARD ONLY AND BANK WIRE
======================================================
Due to the Recent problem related to our product we have decided to promote our new
camry to reconfirm our stand to the recent fault in our brakes and malfuntional parts in
our product. As part of this promotional statue we select you as a beneficiary of our
Toyota Camry latest edition and a sum of USD$500 that wil paid to your by Swift Card
payment system.
Our promotion council have decided to help stimulate the world economy by email
balloting of people that have email in the internet by random selection and your email is
among the selected email and you are qualify to receive the lump sum of USD500,000.00
And due to fraud associated with this type of promotion we have instructed all payment
to be made through ATM Card payment so that all .
TO CLAIM CONTACT
MR. STEVEN HO
1. Name in Full:
2. Mailing Address:
3. Nationality:
4. Age/ Sex:
5. Occupation:
6. Telephone Number:
7. Present Country:
8. Your City:
9. Your State:
10. Email address:
Send above information in your correspondences with your claims agent.
Sincerely,
Reply to your agent immediately
V.P FINANCE
MR. STEVEN HO
Email: stevenho@toyotapromo.net
LOTTO AGENT
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Anti-fraud resources:
