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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "microsoft lottery" (no such lottery exists)
- 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.
- agentoffice209@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs.Theresa Orias" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <agentoffice209@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 01:00:15 +0100
Subject: Attn:Beneficiary Email Owner
MICROSOFT AWARD TEAM 2010
Attn:Beneficiary Email Owner,
Winner No: 04,
Microsoft Coporation wish to notify all online customers as we celebrates the 35th year anniversary; and also to inform you that you have emerged one of the beneficiary
selected in this ongoing 35th Anniversary Program in conjunction with the Foundation of Software Products (F.P.S.). Your email address have been selected as one of the lucky winning address, therefore you have been approved for a lump sum payout of 950.000.00 Euro (Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Euro)
You are required to fill out below information and send it to MR. Erick VAN BEEK the processing Consultant Via this email address for your claims: agentoffice209@gmail.com
(1)Residential Address:
(2)Tel/Fax #:
(3)Country:
(4)Full Name:
(5)Age/Sex:
(6)Occupation/Position:
(7)What is Your Comment On Microsoft Products?:
NOTE: Your award security information are (Batch No:NL/9420X2/68, Ref No:0087955827499.
Because of numerous fraudulent schemes going around the internet, confidentiality should be accorded at all times. You are expected to keep the news of your winning and your reference code to yourself until you have received your winning funds into any account your will provide to our banker. This is to avoid false claims and abuse of the program.
Congratulations from the Staffs & Members of Microsoft Board Commission.
Mrs.Theresa Orias
Head Customer care Service
Microsoft Promotion Team
Our special thanks and gratitude to Chairman CEO MICROSOFT Bill Gates and his associates we wish you the best of luck. Thank you for being part of our promotional award program and commemorative Anniversary.
© Copyright 2010 Microsoft Lottery promotion All Right Reserve
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Anti-fraud resources:
