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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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "francoberti@games.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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!
Fraud email example:
From: EuroMillions<megamillionpicknplay@luckymail.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2010 22:28:48 GMT
Subject: Congratulations
Your email has won =80548,936.00 ( Five Hundred And Forty-Eight
Thousand Nine Hundred And Thirty-Six Euros ) in Italia Euromillion
International e- programme
held in Milano, Italy on the 29/01/2010.Contact Agent below for claims.
Claims Agent : Franco Berti
Email: francoberti@games.com
Tel:+39 388-194-5534
Winnind Details:
Match 5 1 Star
Ref: EMLT/0521/8161/10
Batch: 02/021/EML
Serial Number: 05231
Regards,
Mrs. Wayne Kendy
NEVER SEND SPAM. IT IS BAD.
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Anti-fraud resources:
