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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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- euro_million@aol.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2012 06:57:23 -0500
Subject: To begin your claim
To begin your claim
EUROMILLIONE LOTERIA ESP
CALLE LAS ROZAS 23
MADRID ESPANA
RE: WINNING NOTIFICATION/FINAL AWARD:
ATTN; WINNER,
We are pleased to inform you of the release of the long awaited results of the EUROMILLIONE LOTERIA S.A PROMOTION held on 1st of September 2012 your email address attached to the Ticket No:TK/365\\9NL that drew the lucky Winning No Y-871GTH.
You have been approved for a payment of 300,000.00Euros (THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND EURO) in cash credited to File Batch No XQ1017BN This is from a total cash prize of THREE MILLION EUROS Shared among the ten International winners in second categories.
All participants were selected through a Multi international computer ballot system drawn from 98,000
(Ninety eight thousand) names of email users around the world.
To begin your claim, do file for the release of your winning by contacting our accredited agent: Foreign
Transfer Manager: Mr. David Barbel
Email: euro_million@aol.com<mailto:euro_million@aol.com>
Tel: +34-634-075-250
YOUR SECURITY FILE NUMBER IS D1-67/WM4 (keep personal) Remember your winning must be claimed not later than (12-09-2012) after this date funds might be returned to the lottery company as unclaimed prize furthermore should there be any change in your address do inform your claims agent as soon as possible.
Congratulations once again,
Yours Sincerely
Mrs. Rita Mendez
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Anti-fraud resources:
