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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.
- 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.
- bentelliot09@realtyagent.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Stella Ellis" <luiz.barroso@tjam.jus.br>
Reply-To: "Mrs. Stella Ellis" <bentelliot08@realtyagent.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:32:57 -0400 (AMT)
Subject: UK XMAS BONANZA AWARD 2010
--
The National Lottery
P.O.Box 1010
Liverpool, L70 1NL
UNITED KINGDOM
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369
Customer Service!!!
THE UK NATIONAL SWEEPSTAKE 2010/2011
Attn: Winner
You have won the sum of £850,000.00 GBP from the UK NATIONAL XMAS BONANZA,from
the just concluded British Lottery September Promotions 2010/2011.
Contact Person.
Mr. Bent Elliot
Email: bentelliot09@realtyagent.com
Requirements:
1. Name:
2. Address:
3. Age:
4. Sex:
5. Occupation:
6. Telephone Number:
7. Country of Residence:
Congratulations from me and members of staff of THE UNITED KINGDOM NATIONAL
LOTTERY.Our winners are assured of the utmost standards of confidentiality,and
press anonymity until the end of proceedings,and beyond where they so desire.Be
further advised to maintain the strictest level of confidentiality until the
end of proceedings to circumvent problems associated with fraudulent
claims.This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and
unwarranted abuse of this program.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Yours faithfully,
Stella Ellis (Mrs)
Online coordinator for THE UNITED KINGDOM NATIONAL LOTTERY Sweepstakes
International Program.
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Anti-fraud resources: