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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.
- 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.
- thai_info_agent@yahoo.co.jp (Yahoo, Japan; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: Mr Tang Hung <mrtanghung@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: <thai_info_agent@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:47:12 +0700
Subject: UK LOTTERY ORGANIZATION
UK LOTTERY ORGANIZATION
TICKET FREE/ONLINE E-MAIL ADDRESS WINNINGS DEPARTMENT.
If you are the correct owner of this email address,then be glad this
day as the result of the UK lotto online e-mail winning draws and
sweepstakes held in BANGKOK-THAILAND on the 1st of July 2010 has just
been released and we are glad to announce to you that your e-mail
address has won you the lottery in the first category and you are
entitled to claim the sum of US$4.6M
Your email address was entered for the online draw on this Ticket
Number: APP236566301307 and won on this Lucky Number: MX014926583.You
are to
contact KEVIN LAMBERT (ENGLISH DEPARTMENT). on the below email
address:thai_info_agent@yahoo.co.jp for quick delivery of your US$4.6M
certified cheque.
In order to ascertain you as the rightful receiver of the US$4.6M. you
are to include the below listed information in your reply mail.
Your country...............
Complete official names..........
Amount won................
Ticket and lucky numbers.........
Date/venue of draw..........
Address ............
Contact telephone........
Mobile and fax numbers.........
sex..........
Age..........
Occupation .........
job title.......
Office Address:soil 10433 Ali Mohamed way BAK 5200A Bangkok Thailand
Email-Address: thai_info_agent@yahoo.co.jp
Contact Agent: MR KEVIN LAMBERT
Yours Truly,
Mr Tang Hung
Co-ordinator.
UK LOTTERY ORGANIZATION
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