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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "australian lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "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)
- 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: "Test user feoktist" <victor@spa.msu.ru>
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2012 02:49:19 +0400
Subject: Dear Lucky Winner
Dear Lucky Winner,
Congratulations as we happily announce to you today that the draw. Of
the MICROSOFT AUSTRALIAN ONLINE LOTTERY, online International Lottery program
held in Australia.
Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 4700172507056490102 with Serial
number 493-678 drew the lucky numbers:[77-41-13-40-02 ].: Batch:
8056490902/188-BTA/06 Lucky Draw Number: 7-18-87-45-69-63 Reference
Number:MICROAA4/575061725 Amount Won.£1,00,000.00GBP.
Contact Your claims agent Mr. Douglas Neme
email......( mr.douglasneme01@w.cn )
With this information's
FULL NAME...............
OCCUPATION...........
NATIONALITY...............DATE OF BIRTH...........
CONTACT ADDRESS....
AND TELEPHONE NUMBER....
Regards,
Mr. Doris Roger.
MICROSOFT AUSTRALIAN LOTTERY INC.
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Anti-fraud resources:
