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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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "to your nominated bank account" (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)
- ",500,000" (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)
- "davewilliams-1@gala.net" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- "davewilliams-1@gala.net" (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 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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dave Williams" (may be fake)
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:10:50 +0200
Subject: ...+ CONTACT Dr. DAVE FOR IMMEDIATE PAYMENT...
For Claiming, Urgently call or contact;
Dr. Dave Williams
Tel: +27-78 667 - 4587
E-mail: davewilliams-1@gala.net
C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S!!!!
We are pleased to inform you of your email selection in the Electronic Promotion Draws. By random selection your email earned the grand reward from the electronic draws program.
This is a reward program for the BLUE STONE PROMOTION services and all email addresses entered for this promotional draws were randomly selected from an internet resource database of registered software and domain users.
Mega Ball No: 01 19 21 43 56 02
Cash No: 22-12-33-42-49
Amount Won: $2,500,000.00 (Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars)
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR CLAIM AGENT FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE PAYMENT
Dr. Dave Williams
Tel: +27-78 667 - 4587
E-mail: davewilliams-1@gala.net
Kindly provide the following information for the processing of your winning fund.
FILL THE DETAILS BELOW FOR VERIFICATION
FULL NAMES:_______________________________
MAILING ADDRESS: _________________________
SEX: _____________________
AGE/DATE OF BIRTH_____________________
MARITAL STATUS: _____________
OCCUPATION: ______________________
TEL / FAX NUMBER: __________________________
COUNTRY: _____________________________
All the informations required are very important, they will be used for verifying that you are the rightful winner of the prize so do not hesitate to call your claim agent as soon as you send your details so that we can start the process of your claim immediately for immediate telegraphic transfer of your prize money to your nominated bank account in your country.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Caroline M.
Blue Stone Promotions Manager.
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Anti-fraud resources:
