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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")
- "hundred thousand united states dollars" (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)
- ",500,000" (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)
- "you are advice to " (this email uses bad English)
- 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.
- +31644893668 (Netherlands, prepaid mobile phone)
- 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.
- bernard.peijs@yahoo.de (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "MARKT LOTTERY AGENCY NL." <budhrani@gibtelecom.net>
Reply-To: org_maryy@yahoo.de
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:32:20 +0100
Subject: MARKT LOTTERY AGENCY.
Attn Lucky Winner,
We are pleased to inform you that you have emerged a winner in
the annual draw of our Lottery International Programs. Your
email address was selected by our Electronic Random Selection
System (ERSS) from an exclusive list of
250,000,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate bodies
generated from an internet resource database.No tickets were
sold.
Your email address is identified with Batch Number: 444821545-
NL/2008 and Ticket Number: PP 3812 /2007-08 in Category "A" and
your claims portfolio is filed with Ref Number: MARKT 90 ES
8414.You are therefore to receive a cash
prize of $2,500,000.00. (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand
United States Dollars) from the total payout CONGRATULATIONS!!!.
Your prize winning has a hardcover insurance policy with your e-
mail address, and will be transferred to you upon meeting the
claims requirements, statutory obligations, verifications,
validations and satisfactory report.
To file for the processing of your prize sum payment, you are
advised to contact our Certified and Accredited claims agent
for category "A" winners with the information below:
*************************************
Name: Bernard PEIJS
Tel: +31 644 893 668
Email: bernard.peijs@yahoo.de
*************************************
You are advice to provide him with the following information:
Names:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:
NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later than 14 days,
thereafter unclaimed funds would be included in the next stake.
Remember to quote your reference information in all
correspondence.
Yours Faithfully,
Mary Jones
Lottery Coordinator.
PRIVACY STATEMENT
1. Personal and winning data provided by winners to THIS PROMO
remains known ONLY to the winner and INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONAL
PROGRAMS ORGANISATION.
Anti-fraud resources: