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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 office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "hundred thousand great 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)
- "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.
- mr.paulohill@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs Roseta filho" <billot_email@bellsouth.net>
Reply-To: mr.paulohill@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:36:52 +0000
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
You have won £ 800,000.00 GBP Eight Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds in the Euro Millions International email raffle draw yearly sweepstake program with the following
informations
E-mail Address Quote: 05032
Ticket Number: 5647600545188
Serial number: BPP-P/556543450906
To file your claims, please contact the processing agent;
Claims Officer,
Paulo Hill.
E-mail : mr.paulohill@yahoo.com
You are also to provide the informations below for your prize claim.
1. Your full name and address
2. Your age, sex and occupation
3. Your personal phone and fax number
4. Your Full Contact Address.
5 Your winning numbers (E-mail Address Quote.,Ticket Number,Serial number).
Regards.
Mrs Roseta filho
Online Co_ordinator
Anti-fraud resources:
