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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:
- "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)
- "deadline" (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!
- Western Union money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. It is the preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.
- 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.
- info.lottocoordinator@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Guy Roger <info.lottocoordinator@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 11:04:23 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Answer
MICROSOFT U-K ONLINE LOTTERY.
FROM THE COORDINATOR,
PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT.
THE EMAIL LOTTO, UK.
Attn: Ms Solvig Jaeg
Dear Prize Winner,
I received your mail and I want to assure you that once we receive your required insurance, processing and courier charges, your winning cash prize of £250,000GB pounds would be paid to your nominated bank account within a maximum time of 72 hours as promised. I advise you to hasten up and go to any western union agent around your area to make your payment. Please note that your deadline for claiming your prize is Saturday 15th day of September 2007 and your failure to claim your prize on or before the aforementioned date would warrant us to presume that you have forfeited your cash prize and thereby declare it unclaimed. If your prize remained unclaimed for more than a week, it would be donated to charity as in line with our official procedure.
Congratulations and have a wonderful week.
THE COORDINATOR
MR GUY ROGER
Email-Lotto
PO Box 1010
Liverpool
L70 1NL
Tel: +44-(0)7011131267
+44-(0)7045728763
Email: info.lottocoordinator@yahoo.co.uk
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