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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:
- "the bmw automobile company" (no such lottery exists)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million british pounds" (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.
- +447035932216 (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.
- bmwcliamsdept147@hotmail.com
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: bmwcliamsdept147@hotmail.com
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:52:13 GMT
Subject: CONGRATULATION YOU HAVE WON?
THE BMW AUTOMOBILE PROMOTION
DEPARTMENT CONGRATULATE YOU
22 Garden Close, PE9 2YP, London
Dear Winner,
We the Bmw Automobile Company will like to bring to your notice that you
have been selected for a cash prize of 2,000 000.00 (Two Million British Pounds
sterling) and a brand new BMW 5 Series Car from International programs
held on the 14th of October, 2008 in London Uk.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in our
computerized email selection system (ess) from a database. You are to
contact our fiduciary claims department Mr Greg Bake
Email:bmwcliamsdept147@hotmail.com
Phone numbers+447035932216
Reference Number BMW:2551256003/23
secret pin code x7pwyz2007
1: Name:
2:Address:
3:Nationality:
4.Sex:
5:Age:
6.Occupation:
7.Phone:
8.Email:
Mr. Anderson Bee
online co-coordinator
Anti-fraud resources:
