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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:
- "jh4uk@f-mail.net" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- 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.
- +447011120116 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "Michael William" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jh4uk@f-mail.net>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2010 03:55:44 +0100
Subject: September Winner!!!!
Congratulations!!!!
ELS Lottery Service would like to congratulate you.You are a winner of our
monthly draws held this September 2010.
Your email address got the second runner up postion out of other 30 lucky
winners. Your email address won a cash bonus of $3,450,000 (Three Million, Four
Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars). You are expected to come and claim your
cash price from any of our service agents. Moreover, you are expected to provide
the below information to prove ownership of your email address
before your cash price would be released to you.
Full Name:
Contact Address:
Email Address:
Phone Number:
How Long Have you Owned This Email Address:
Please note that ownership of email address would be confirmed before payment
can be released. Also your payment authorization code is #503GHL-2009-ELS10
must be included in your acknowledgement email for proper identification.
Contact the agent below immediately
Name: John Hackey
Email: jh4uk@f-mail.net
Tel:+447011120116
Regards
Michael Williams
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Anti-fraud resources:
