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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:
- "fiduciary 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.
- +34693253661 (Spain, 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.
- grupocatalanaespana@yahoo.es (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Spanish Sweepstake Lottery <info@spanish.es>
Reply-To: royalspanishs@aol.com
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:42:55 +0200
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION!!!
The Spanish Sweepstake Lottery
International Promotion/Award Department
Ref: SSL/61-ILGI059/45
Batch: SSL/15/096/GCO
We write to congratulate you as your email address has won you
=801,000,000.00(One Million Euro) in the recently conducted software email
lottery by SPANISH SWEEPSTAKE LOTTERY. This was done after email addresses
were randomly selected by our database software powered by the Internet
and your email address was among those chosen this quarter to claim
your award, you are to contact the fiduciary agent; GRUPO CATALANA
OCCIDENTE
LOUIS MARTINS (Remittance Officer)
TEL: +34-693-253-661
Email:grupocatalanaespana@yahoo.es
You are to forward the following details below to the remittance
officer for processing and remittance.
1. Full Names:
2. Age :
3. Sex :
4. Contact Address :
5. Occupation :
6. Phone and fax numbers :
7. Country of Residence:
Congratulations.
Sincerely
Thomas Jose
Lottery Director.
Anti-fraud resources:
