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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:
- "from: the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- 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.
- +447024069075 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "PROF.MOHAMMED HASSAN" <msw_paymentoffice2090@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:47:26 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: INFORMATION!!
FROM: THE DESK OF THE E-MAIL PROMOTIONS MANAGER INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE
AWARD DEPARTMENT, MICROSOFT CORPORATION WORD LOTTERY
UNITED KINGDOM.61-70 Southampton Row,
Bloomsbury London United Kingdom WC1B 4AR.
REFERENCE NO: MSW-L/200-26940
BATCH NO: 2010 MARCH TL#22
WINNER NO: 5
ATTENTION: FARROKH BULSARA
THIS IS TO RE-INFORM YOU THAT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HAS BEEN SELECTED AS ONE OF OUR LUCKY WINNERS IN THE YEAR 2009 AND IT IS DIRECTLY FROM MICROSOFT WORD ORGANIZATIONS.
YOU HAVE REALLY WASTED A LOT OF TIME IN REPLYING OUR EMAIL BUT THIS OFFICE WILL NOT ENTERTAIN ANY FORM OF DELAY FROM YOUR SIDE AGAIN.
NOTE: YOUR WINNING FUND IS STILL INTACT , YOU ARE ADVISED TO FILL THE FORM AND SEND BACK TO US FOR FURTHER PROCESSING.
BEST REGARDS
PROF.HASSAN MOHAMMED
+447024069075
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Anti-fraud resources:
