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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:
- "fiduciary 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.
- 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.
- estrellasgrs@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Head Office" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <estrellasgrs@aim.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 05:48:44 +0200
Subject: You Won
Attn: Winner,
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the LOTERIA NACIONAL PROGRAM held on the 22nd June. 2012. Your names attached to a ticket number 78400 won the lottery in the 2nd ‘’premio’’ (category) in the 11:11 hours of the 10th of Jun. 2012.
You have therefore been approved for a lump sum payout of ?615, 810.00 (Six Hundred and Fifteen thousand, Eight Hundred and Ten Euro Only) in cash credited to the file reference number: ESP/0022/120/08M. This is from a total cash prize of ?25,468,770.00 (TWENTY FIVE MILLION FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT THOUSAND, SEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY EURO ONLY) shared among the international winners in all categories. CONGRATULATIONS!!!
!! HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE !!
Simply contact our Fiduciary Agent with the following particulars;
(i) Ticket N?: 78400
(ii) Ref N?: ESP/0022/120/08M.
(iii) Personal Information: 1. Full Name: 2. Residential Address:
Telephone/Fax: 3. Date of Birth: 4. Occupation
Contact person:
Jose Miguel Alonso.
Tel: +34 652 018 532
Email: estrellasgrs@aim.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
