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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:
- "@diplomats.com" ("diplomats" who perform deliveries of cash or other valuables to you only exist in 419 scams)
- 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 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.
- +447035962935 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- 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.
- claims.reddot_co@diplomats.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Red-Dot Co. Promotions" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <claims.reddot_co@diplomats.com>
Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2013 08:04:18 -0500
Subject: NOTIFICATIONS!!!
CONGRATULATIONS ! CONGRATULATIONS !! CONGRATULATIONS !!!
Attn: Lucky Winner
We are happy to notify you that your e-mail address was selected which won
you One Million, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars in our
on-going 2013 award presentation.
Your email was selected from the database of your email account provider
which was picked-out after a random sampling. You were chosen by the Red
Dot Company Board Committee as one of the recipients of this year's award
to celebrate the success of the Monetary and Fiscal year.
To file for the Claim of this award money you are therefore advice to
reply back to our claim department with your,
Name:
Address:
Sex:
Occupation:
Phone number:
Country:
NOTE: All correspondence to our Claims Department,
Red Dot Claims Department
Email: claims.reddot_co@diplomats.com
Phone: +447035962935
Contact Person: Mr Steven Tolks
Upon your response we will give you more details On how you are to claim
this award.
Regards
Red-Dot Co.
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Anti-fraud resources:
