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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.
- 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: "Vodafone Group Plc" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <corsomarconi@yahoo.it>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 15:16:39 -0700
Subject: Once again congratulations...........
Vodafone Group Plc
Our Ref: - 02943SI
Winning Code: 7-7-4-4-1-3-2-4-1-4-2-3-4-3
Won Sum: Five Hundred Thousand Euro Only (€ 500,000: 00)
Attention: Confirmed Winner !
Vodafone Plc is at it again. This promotion is a one time programmer and no tickets were sold for this draw because the draw is to promote the sponsoreship bid as the official MOBILE for the SA 2010 World Cup. We hope that this notice sent to you via the Internet will get to you on time to process your claims from our authorized agent zoned. Contact your Agent in Italy via the email address Or Tel/Fax given to you which will enable you claim your winnings immediately. Include your above Code in your reply.
AGENT: Mr. Giancalo luca,
Email: gianlucavoda@gmail.it
Tel/Fax: 0039 (095) 5900763
Once again congratulations...........
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Anti-fraud resources:
