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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:
- "sorosgrantdonations@outlook.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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!
Fraud email example:
From: GEORGE SOROS FOUNDATION <info@georgesoros.net>
Reply-To: sorosgrantdonations@outlook.com
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2014 23:32:37 -0800
Subject: FYI: George Soros Grant Award.
--
GEORGE SOROS FOUNDATION AWARD
Leeds West End London.
United Kingdom.
Congratulations!
You have been selected/qualified for the Grant sum of £950,000.00 GBP
(Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand British Pound Sterlings) payment for
Personal Business and Community Development in the ongoing GEORGE
SOROS/Open Society Human Empowerment Award established in 1983, proudly
supported by World Bank and powered by Microsoft.
Your E-mail address attached to Grant number: 14QE136X8 emerged as one
of our special winners and subsequently won you the Grant Payment in the
2014 empowerment scheme of the George Soros Foundation Grant Donations.
This Donation takes place annually. For security reasons, you are
advised to keep your Grant Number confidential till your payment is
processed and your funds remitted to you via our supporting bank. This
is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and
unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned.
To Claim grant, send Full Names: Gender: Date of Birth: Grant Number:
Mobile Number: Alternate E-mail: Country of Origin: Country of
Residence: only to sorosgrantdonations@outlook.com
Note: It was your E-mail address that won you this Grant Award in an
on-line random draw that is powered by Microsoft. E-mail addresses are
randomly selected by Microsoft powered INTERNET tools and lucky winners
are then notified. You are to establish contact for claims immediately
by providing the requested details as above.
Kind Regards,
Mr. Bryan Woods,
Secretary & Announcer George Soros Foundation.
GEORGE SOROS HUMAN EMPOWERMENT AWARD MANAGEMENT.
©2014 GeorgeSorosAward | All rights reserved
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Anti-fraud resources:
