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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 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.
- +2348074977213 (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.
- mtncustomerunit2008@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "MTN Telecommunication Network" <mtncustomerunit2008@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:09:18 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Dear Beneficiary
MTN Telecommunication Network.
(Everywhere you go)
AMOUNT WON: $1,000.000.00 usd
Ticket No:MTN/V/Card/0803/1800
Winning No:M/V/card/181/2008
Email:mtncustomerunit2008@yahoo.com.hk
Tel:+2348074977213
Congratulations
The MTN mobile telecommunication network service has
choosen you by the board of executive directors as one of the final
recipients of a cash Grant/Donation.The online cyber draws was conducted
from an exclusive list of 100,000 email addresses of individuals and
corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer
selection
from the web.This promotion is to celebrate the 8th years anniversary
2008
programme,We are giving out a yearly donation of $1,000.000.00 USD to 10
lucky recipients as a way of showing our appreciation.
CONTACT EVENT ADMINISTRATOR.
Email:MTN Claims Department
1.Full Name:.......
2.Residential Address:...
3.Country:......
4.Occupation:......
5.Telephone:....
6.Sex:...
7.Age:....
8.Next of Kin:.....
9.Nationality:....
10.Winning No:.....
Secretary
Mr George Mark
MTN® Award Promotion
©2009 Online Award Promotion Edition
------------------------------------
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