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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:
- "your urgent reply" (they are rushing you so you don't have time to think properly)
- 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.
- +447011147783 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: kevin morgan <k_morgan30@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 09:24:20 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Re: LOTTERY CLAIM PRIZE
ATTENTION:
This is to notify you that the NLOS has assumed office today and we are waiting for your urgent reply regarding your winning prize of one million pounds.
At this junction we advise you to follow up with the NLOS procedure in order for your claim to be process and accomplishe. And you can as well contact on us via this phone number: +447011147783.
Congratulations once again. We advise you to invest wisely as soon as you receive your claim and remember the charity home(orphanages).
Regards
Agent Kelvin Morgan
Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Anti-fraud resources: