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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")
- "chaletspl@8u8.hk" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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.
- infosgasl@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Collins" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <infosgasl@aim.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:32:43 +0200
Subject: Award promotion
Email Award claims
This is to inform you that your Email Address attached to a Ticket Number:31987954 has won the prize Sum of: Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Euros (450,000.00) Euros, in an Email Luckyday Nacional award promotion. Held in Nederlands. To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent: Prize Processing Officer
Mr.Frank Dorek
Email:infosgasl@aim.com
Email:chaletspl@8u8.hk
WINNING INFORMATIONS
LUCKY NO: 40/23/44/72/10
Ref Number: 67218/501-4242/ES
Batch Number:612775428-SP/2010
PROMOTION DATE: 19 th of April 2010
Full names:
Age:
Occupation:
Phone/Fax
Please note that you will be required to pay for the issuance of your legal back up and legalization of certificate of deposit document in court, All winnings must be claimed not later than 15 days,
Congratulations!!
Sincerely Yours
Dr.Collins J
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Anti-fraud resources:
