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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")
- 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.
- +447045771338 (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.
- claimstel@hotmail.co.uk (Hotmail, United Kingdom; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "STMICROELECTRONICS COMPANY LIMITED" (may be fake)
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 02:54:56 +0100
Subject: Dear Winner
STMICROELECTRONICS COMPANY LIMITED
Address : 39, Chemin du Champ des Filles
C. P. 21
CH 1228 Plan-Les-Ouates
GENEVA, Switzerland
Web Site : www.st.com
:::______YEAR 2010 EMAIL PRIZE AWARDS________:::
Dear Winner,
We at STmicroelectronics global office likes to officially congratulate
you for the draw that was just held by our company which featured you as
the second place winner. Our company holds promotions each year just to
promote our global publicity and reputations as we plan to exploit more
corners of the world with our highly valued products line.
This promotion is just one of various ways we are presently using to
achieve this global vision of ours. Your email address with MICROS ID (
PLD-29103-LGT-901GH-9JL ) was luckily drawn to be this year's second place
winner of a Brand New 2008 BMW x5 car and a cash prize of £1.1m. This
money and gift we believe will enable you make some impact in the society
and possibly invest in our company in the near future.
You are hereby requested to contact our agent for more details on our
promotion in particular before taking furtheractions to claiming your
prize.. Ensure you contact Mr A . Cuomo who is our claims official in
Europe. United Kingdom and also a Representative whom understand your
english and some european languages. See details of him below.
Name : A . Cuomo
Email : claimstel@hotmail.co.uk
Address : Embark Lane 23, London. United Kingdom
Telephone : +447045771338
When contacting the claims agent you should include the following if you
must get a response from him:
*** Your Full Name
*** Address
*** Country
*** State
*** Phone number
*** Age
*** Gender
*** Occupation
*** Winning email and Micros ID.
We know you must be excited and very happy about this news you have just
received from us and the truth is that we are doing this to put smiles
into homes and hearts of people worldwide.The only thing you will need to
pay to this company is to kindly place our company logo on the BMW that
you have just won for a minimum of 6months.
Special greetings from the entire family of STmicroelectronics
Worldwide.
Signed,
Mr, C.Ferro (Chief Financial Officer )
________________________________________________________
*NOTE** You must be 18years or older and above to claim. Late
response is not accepted. Misconduct and non adherence to
instructions leads to prize termination.
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Anti-fraud resources:
