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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:
- The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "irish lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "fudiciary" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- 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!
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
- 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.
- +447045725579 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: uknationallottery@uk.org
Reply-To: barristerethanbaker@ymail.com
Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:10:03 +0800 (MYT)
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION !!!
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369
Dear Winner,
We are pleased to inform you of the final announcement of the Irish Lottery Promotion end of the year Online Promotion held on 26th Agust,2008.This is the last as we are about distributing winnings to winners.Your email address was attached to Reference NumberUK/9420X2/68 was picked as one of the ten winning email addresses.This has qualified you to claim the total cash prize Of 700,000(Seven hundred thousand Pound Sterling) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03. This is from a total cash prize of 700,000 pounds sterling amongst the first ten (10) winners in this category.
CLAMS PROCESSING FORM FOR FILLING OF CLAIMS.
Name:Age:sex:Occupation:Country:Address:Phone No.:Winning Email Address.
You are to send this filled information to our fudiciary agent
E-mail:barristerethanbaker@ymail.com
Telephone: +447045725579
Yours Faithfully,
Mr.Richard.K.Lloyds
Anti-fraud resources: