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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.
- 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.
- +447035932610 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- 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.
- olympic2012claimsunit@aol.com (AOL; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "London Olympic" <Olympic@info.com>
Reply-To: olympic2012claimsunit@aol.com
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:06:58 +0600 (BDT)
Subject: 2012 LONDON OLYMPIC PROMOTION PAYMENT RELEASE FORM (FILL AND
RETURN WITHOUT DELAY)
London 2012
One Churchill Place
Canary Wharf
London E14 5LN.
Mr. Alex Marsh
Tel: +447035932610
Email: olympic2012claimsunit@aol.com
My names is Mr. Alex Marsh. I am the London Olympic Cash Officer assigned
to winners from your region of the email sweepstakes.
As reflected in our email to you, this promo program has been on-line for
so many years to date. This years program has been designed to give out
lump sums to fewer individuals and corporate winners. Email address were
picked at random from different websites, search engines for the final
selection and winning.
Your email was picked by our automated computer ballot system, which has
been programmed for this random selection. This has eventually qualified
you for the lump sum jackpot of One million Six hundred and fifty thousand
pounds(£1,650,000.00) GBP. And all information concerning the facilitation
of your claim will commence as soon as you fill and submit the LONDON
OLYMPIC PAYMENT RELEASE FORM below.
Verification No.: ====ACI-919-EA====
File No.: ====7541/196/33710969====
1.FULL NAMES OF BENEFICIARY:
2.RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
3.DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
4.MOBILE NUMBER /FAX NUMBERS:
5. NAME AND ADDRESS OF NEXT OF KIN:
6.SEX:
7.OCCUPATION:
8.MARITAL STATUS:
9.NATIONALITY:
10.COUNTRY:
11. AMOUNT WON:
Indicate which option you prefer to receive your 2012 London Olympic prize:
1. Come to the Redemption center in United Kingdom ( )
2. On-line Bank Transfer ( )
3. Courier Delivery service ( )
--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.
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Anti-fraud resources:
