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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:
- 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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- 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 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.
- jamesricado@aol.com (AOL; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "Shell Petroluem" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jamesricado@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 6 May 2010 21:41:52 +0200
Subject: Shell Petroluem Winning Notification
SHELL PETROLEUM LOTTERY WINNING NOTIFICATION IN COLLARBORATION WITH SHELL PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY {SPDC} AND BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO COMPANY OFFICIAL WINNING NOTIFICATION.
Dear Sir/Madam
We are pleased to notify you of the Shell Management free Net Lottery Promotional award/result Program held on the 28th of April ,2010. in which your e-mail address was attached to this Winning Nº: 60/84/27/17/36 Ref number SH/75337/6442 with BATCH: ELL/7733/01, which won a lump sum payout of $1,000000 united state dollars.
To file for your claim, Please contact the authorized officer in charge.
Mr James Ricado
Email: jamesricado@aol.com
Yours Sincerely,
From Mrs Emily Green Co-ordinator.
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Anti-fraud resources:
