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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")
- ",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 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.
- +447024091901 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- 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.
- cthornton2007@yahoo.pl (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: rwatkins42@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2008 12:35:58 +1200
Subject: LOTTERY WINNING NOTIFICATIONS!!! VERY IMPORTANT!
Dear Winner,
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the LOTERIE ROMANDE games
held on the 9th of January 2008.Your e-mail address attached to ticket
number 1942896-9032 with serial number SL001490 drew lucky numbers
11-0-17-31-60- 75-9 has consequently won in the 1st category, you have
therefore WON the sum of £700,000.00 GBP Only. All participants were
selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 10,000,000
companies and 30,000,000 individual email addresses all over the world.
This lottery is promoted by LOTERIE ROMANDE with no tickets sold. Please
note that your winning numbers falls within our United Kingdom booklet
representative as indicated in your play coupon to file in for your
claims, please contact our licensed and accredited claims agent in
(Manchester England) with the information below:
Dr. Chris Thornton
Email: cthornton2007@yahoo.pl
Tel:+447024091901
Regards,
Mrs. Rosie Jean
Anti-fraud resources:
