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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.
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "hundred thousand united states dollars" (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)
- "courier company" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- 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 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.
- agentnelson2010@sify.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "SHELL OIL COMPANY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <agentnelson2010@sify.com>
Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:23:39 +0200
Subject: SHELL WINNER 2010 !!
REF #: 73284294SA
BATCH #: SLSA-0385-SHI
TICKET #: 4278-8845-284
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of One Million Two Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (USD$1,200,000.00) for the month of January, 2010 Prize promotion which is organized by SHELL PETROLEUM COMPANY.
SHELL collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online,among the millions that subscribed to various websites. Six people are selected yearly to benefit from this promotion and you are one of the Selected Winners.
NOTE: The only fees you have to pay is the courier company fee which is USD$200.00.Contact them as soon as possible to make arrangement on how to effect the delivery of your Winnings
Contact: Agent Tom Nelson
Email: agentnelson2010@sify.com
SHELL ONLINE FORM
FULL NAME:
DELIVERY ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER
COUNTRY:
OCCUPATION:
SEX:
AGE:
CONGRATULATIONS ONCE AGAIN AND HAPPY NEW YEAR !!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ron Van Dem Berg
President SHELL PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY (SPDC)
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Anti-fraud resources:
