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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:
- "million dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- ",000,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "ELS LOTTERY SERVICE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jh4uk@live.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:07:43 -0700
Subject: October Winner
Attention Winner
ELS Lottery Service would like to congratulate you.You are a winner of the New monthly
draws this October 2010.
Your email address got the second runner up postion out of other 30 lucky winners. Your
email address won a cash bonus of $3,000,000 (Three Million Dollars). You are expected
to come and claim your cash price with 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. Your payment authorization code
should be sent along with your information for proper identification.
Regards
Peter Hills
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Anti-fraud resources:
