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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "i have a new email address!" (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- 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.
- +2348067251152 (Nigeria, prepaid mobile phone)
- 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.
- microzprize@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
- microsoftwestafrica@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:20:52 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HAS WON ( Five Hundred Thousand Dollars )
I have a new email address!You can now email me at: microzprize@yahoo.com
- Microsoft cooperation management worldwide are pleased to inform you that you are a winner of ( Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ) for our annual Microsoft-world lottery programme conducted in AFRICA being the host of the event for this present year mega jackpot lottery winning Award programme held on March 2008 after HIV/AIDS AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMME in Africa. You won this lottery through online email Generated Computer lottery for the year Anniversary draws. Please, Kindly forward Your Winning details as follows To the processing agent email address( microsoftwestafrica@gmail.com ): (1) ( Winning numbers: 990-11 -815-37-10-83) (2) (Email Ticket numbers...901-0148-790-691) your full name and address. to our processing agent (Mr.Frank Davids) West Africa where the Lottery was Conducted. Contact the agent through email ( microsoftwestafrica@gmail.com ) Or call ( +2348067251152 ).Congratulations once again.
Anti-fraud resources:
