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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:
- "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "hundred thousand united states dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- 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 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.
- exxonmobil2010@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: EXXON MOBIL WORLD WIDE <info@exxonmobil.com>
Reply-To: exxonmobil2010@hotmail.com
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:52:25 +0700
Subject:
FROM THE DESK OF THE EXXON MOBIL
{EXXON MOBIL WORLD WIDE}
OFFICIAL WINNING NOTIFICATION!
Award numbers: MY 62/7811
Email ticket numbers: MY901/33/65
Batch numbers: MY44/707/3PDH /EU
The file reference numbers: HL/8121/31/11/MYMB
Serial Numbers: MYST/030/NL0981
It is obvious that this notification will come to you as a surprise but
please find time to read it carefully as we congratulate you over
your success
in the following official publication of results of the E-mail
electronic online
Sweepstakes organized by Exxon Mobil in month of January, 2010.Wherein your
electronic email address emerged as one of the online winning emails
in the 1st
category and therefore attracted a cash award of USD$500,000,00 (Five Hundred
Thousand United States Dollars only).
For verification purpose is sure to include:
(1) Your mailing address:........................
(2) Your Tel (Mobile):..............................
(3) Your Nationality/Country:....................
{4}Your Full Names:...............................
To file for your claim,Please CONTACT:
*******************************************************************
FOREIGN PROCESSING AND APPROVAL MANAGER
NAME MR.CARL FREEMAN
E-mail:exxonmobil2010@hotmail.com
********************************************************************
CONGRATULATIONS!
Yours faithfully,
MRS.MARIAM AISH'A JAMIL
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