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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "uk national lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- ",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)
- 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.
- +447024060508 (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.
- jamespalmerpeter@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Hayes, Bill" <bhayes@mciu.org>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 11:10:14 -0400
Subject: Attn Lucky Winner(Email: jamespalmerpeter@hotmail.com)
UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
REF: ES-B3087RN-F
Customer Service Office.
Livepool,UK.
We are pleased to inform you that you have emerged as a winner in the
final annual draw of our Lottery International Programs.
Your email address was selected by our Electronic Random Selection System (ERSS)
from an exclusive list of 800,000,000 e-mail addresses of individual and
corporate bodies generated from an internet resource database.
No tickets were sold.Ticket Number: 444821545-ES/2008 SerialNumber: KPL/09-008/SP.
You are therefore advised to receive a cash prize of 850,000 POUNDS
from the total payout.
Your prize award has been insured under a bonded depository policy with
your e-mail address.
To file for the processing of your prize you are advised to contact
Mr.James Palmer Peter with the information below:
************************************
Mr.James Palmer Peter
Tel: +44-702-406-0508
Email: jamespalmerpeter@hotmail.com
************************************
Endeavor to provide him with the following informations:
Names............
Telephone/Fax number:...........
Nationality.........
Age.........
Occupation............
---------------------------
Regards.
Mrs.Willy Stax
Lottery Co-ordinator.
Anti-fraud resources:
