419 scam: "Mrs Caroline Williams"<linkedinn0123@hotmail.com> CONGRATULATIONS FROM LINKEDIN!

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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")
- "million dollars" (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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
1. They don't notify winners by email.
2. You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
3. They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
4. They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
5. They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
6. They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
7. 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.
- +447035928054 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- +442071907502
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.
- linkedinn634@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Mrs Caroline Williams" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <linkedinn634@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2013 15:29:28 -0700
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS FROM LINKEDIN!

HEAD OFFICE

Lavenham Road, Wandsworth,

London, SW18

Tel:+447035928054

fax: +442071907502

www.linkedin.com

CONGRATULATIONS FROM LINKEDIN!

LINKEDIN the Worlds Largest professional social networking Community site with currently 150 million registered members in more than 200 countries and territories around the globe valued more than $522 million Dollars.LINKEDIN Key founders: Reid Hoffman,Jeff Weiner and rest associate, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly and Jean-Luc Vaillant has decided to boost Users and Companies a WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY by Lottery Program and Initial Public Offer said in a press release.

So We are pleased to inform you of the result of the DRAW held on (17th Aug 2013) by LINKEDIN Company in cash Promotion to encourage the usage of LINKEDIN users world wide, your Name and Email was among the 65 Lucky winners who won $50,000.00 USD (fifty Thousand United State Dollars) each on the LINKEDIN promotion Award Attached to Ticket Number (5647600545189), Ref No

(2551256002/244) and Serial Number (55643451907).

The online draw was Conducted by a random selection of email you where picked by an Advanced automated random computer search from the LINKEDIN. in other to claim your winning funds the lottery program which is a new innovation by LINKEDIN, saying A BIG THANKS to you all our users for making LINKEDIN your number one professional social networking.This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants,All participants were selected through a computer ballot system with their email addresses and names from all over the world.

Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our African booklet representative office in West Africa as indicated in our play coupon.To file for your claim, kindly direct your message to our fiduciary agent for processing of your claims and remittance of your wining fund.

FIDUCIARY AGENT: MRS CAROLINE L WILLIAMS

E-mail: linkedinn634@yahoo.com

To avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your Ticket, Reference and serial Numbers in all correspondences as wining will be cancel after 72hours of no claim

Thanks,

LINKEDIN ADMIN AUTHORITY.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam