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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")
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million british pounds" (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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- 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.
- julianwilton02@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: EuroMillions Millionaire Lottery <cdorsey0567@gmail.com>
Reply-To: julianwilton02@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2015 02:50:41 +0100
Subject: Winning Notification
Dear Lucky Winner,
This is to inform you that your e-mail address has luckily won you the
lottery with draw
number (308) of EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle draw held on the 25th
April 2015.
Your e-mail address attached to your ticket number with winning number
SDV403955 drew
the lucky numbers: 09 22 24 27 36 05 07 which subsequently won you the
Raffle draw. You
have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of GBP1,000,000.00
(One Million
British Pounds Sterling) in cash credited to file reference number KLA7532/05.
To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent:
Mr. Julian Wilton
Email: julianwilton02@gmail.com
Provide him with the information below:
Your Name:
Winning e-mail:
Reference number:
Telephone number:
Country of residence:
Yours faithfully,
Mrs.Tonia Atlas
Online Coordinator
N.B: Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result to
disqualification. You must contact your claim agent not later than 2
weeks upon receipt
of this information to file for your claims; this way you're Winning
Certificate and all
other relevant documents/paperwork can be prepared for your prize
release to you.After
this date all funds will be returned as unclaimed.
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