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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:
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "u.k " (this email uses bad English)
- 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.
- +447031940518 (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.
- grahamsmith_agnt@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
- claimsagentwillford@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:42:25 -0700
Subject: ***YOUR EMAIL WON 852,000.00 POUNDS****
The Uk National Lottery.
12 Bridge Street, Staines Middlesex,
TW18 4TP United Kingdom.
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369
Dear Email Owner,
This is to inform you that, your email have won a prize money of
852,000.00 (Eight Hundred And Fifty Two Thousand Pounds) for the month of October 2008 Lottery promotion which is organized by UK NATIONAL LOTTERY AWARD TEAM, collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, we only select Four (4) people every Year as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying online or buying of ticket. We congratulate you for being one of the people selected.
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS ATTACHED TO TICKET NUMBER: 57522465896530
WITH SERIAL NUMBER: 3652-662
DREW LUCKY NUMBERS: 47-14-18-23-31-45
To begin your claims please contact our licensed and accredited agent
Assigned to you
MR. GRAHAM SMITH
UKNL CLAIM AGENT OFFICER
Email: grahamsmith_agnt@hotmail.com <http://us.mc564.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=claimsagentwillford@yahoo.com.hk>
Phone: +44 703 194 0518
You are therefore advised to send the following information to the Claims agent to facilitate them and in order for them to have access in
Proceeding of your winning.
1. Full Name:
2. Country:
3. Contact Address:
4. Cell Phone Number:
5. Office Phone Number:
6. Marital Status:
7. Age:
8. Occupation:
9. Company:
10. Winning Email:
Once again congratulations from the entire staff of the U.k National Lottery.
Warm regards,
Dr. William Laura
Anti-fraud resources: