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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:
- ",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.
- +31623155299 (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.
- intldayzers07@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
- dayzersint07@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Hans Van Hussmann" <dayzersint07@aim.com>
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:45:23 -0200
Subject:
DAYZERS OF THE YEAR INTERNATIONAL.
EMAIL LOTTERY WINNERS
Paleisstraat 5,
2514 JA, DEN HAAG.
The Netherlands.
http://www.dayzers.nl
Emails : Intldayzers07@aim.com
: dayzersint07@aim.com
Congratulations!!! Your email falls into the winning Colum.
Dear Winner,
Congratulations to you as we bring to your notice the result of your email,
selected by our computer ballot system here in the Netherlands.
We are happy to inform you that your email address have emerged a winning
attraction of One Million Euros (1,000,000.00)
Promotional Date: 1st October 2007.
Draw #: NL2007/D007
Ref # 07/NL/1M
Batch #: 980/11GW
Lottery #: 145/07NL
The required winning information is need from you to file for your claims;
please do call or contact the claiming department, with the following email
address..
**********************************************
Mr. Hans Van Hussmann
Tel.: +31- 623-155-299
Fax: +31 -847-424-992
Email: Intldayzers07@aim.com
**********************************************
Winners must claim their winning sum; not later than 30 Days. After this
date all unclaimed cash prize will be forfeited. Please, in order to avoid
unnecessary delay and complications remember to quote personal and winning
numbers in all correspondence with us .Congratulations once again from all
members and staff of DAYZERS OF THE YEAR DEPARTMENT N.L. Thank you for being
part of our promotional program of this year's winners. Send the following
details to endorse your funds file; here in our Department..
(i) Your names..
(ii) Contact telephone and fax numbers
(iii) Contact Address /Country
(iv) Your winning information
(v) Quote amount won.
Yours in service,
Ms, Kear Drijk.
( Promotional Department)
Anti-fraud resources: