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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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- 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.
- award_claimrep@yahoo.com.cn (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "TO EXPO 2010" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <award_claimrep@yahoo.com.cn>
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 21:41:08 +0800
Subject: GOODNEWS FROM SHANGHAI EXPO
FROM THE SHANGHAI HEAVY MACHINERY CORPORATION
SHANGHAI CHINA
Dear Sir/Madam
Your EMAIL ID as indicated was drawn and attached to serial numbers SHEXPO/2010 and drew the lucky numbers 21-456-2010 which subsequently
Select you as one of the 10 jackpot winners in SHANGHAI EXPO 2010 taking place now
You have therefore won the sum of $50,000 (FIFTY THOUSAND US DOLLARS)
We only select FIFTY EMAIL ID OWNERS as our award receipients through computerized electronic balloting System
without any one applying,
as our corporate contribution to the SHANGHAI WORLD EXPO 2010 taking place in CHina
Congratulations for being one of the people selected
And due to fraud assocaited with this type of promotion we have instructed all payment
to be made through BANK WIRE TRANSFER within 10 days of notification
TO CLAIM,SEND THE BELOW PERSONAL INFORMATION TO
DR MORGAN DEVANTE
Payment officer
SHM Corporation,
EMAIL award_claimrep@yahoo.com.cn
1.Name in full:
2.Address:
3.Nationality:
4.Age:
5.Occupation:
6.Telephone Number:/home and mobile
7.Present Country:
8.DETAILS OF THE BANK WHERE YOU WANT THE MONEY TO BE WIRED INTO
DR (MRS) ANN WANG SUI
DAEWOO CORP SHANGHAI
SECRETARY OF THE AWARD COMMITTEE
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Anti-fraud resources:
