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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:
- 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:
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million 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)
- ",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)
- "u.k " (this email uses bad English)
- "claims.uknl004@discuz.org" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- "claims.uknl004@discuz.org" (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: "Award Winning 2010" <info@awardclaims.co.uk>
Reply-To: claims.uknl004@discuz.org
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 03:32:35 +0800
Subject: Draw
ATTENTION*
*U.K NATIONAL PROMOTIONS*
*REF No:UKNL-L/200-26937*
*BATCH No:2005MJL-01*
We are pleased to inform you today 31st of May 2010 of the result of the
winners of the UK NATIONAL ONLINE PROMO DRAW, held on the 26th of May
2010.You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of £1,000,000.00
(British Pounds) One Million Pounds Sterling in cash credited to file UKNL-
L/200-26937
To file for your claim, you are requied to provide the below informations to
the claim agent;
Mr. Edward Garvin
Email: claims.uknl004@discuz.org
Provide him with the information below:
*1.Full Name: 2.Full Address: 3.Occupation: *
*4.Age: 5.Sex: 6.Nationality: 7.Telephone Number: *
Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being
part of our promotional program.
Rose Rex (Mrs)
Online Co-coordinator
U.K NATIONAL PROMOTIONS
Ticket No: 20511465463-7644
Email: claims.uknl004@discuz.org
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Anti-fraud resources:
