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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "courier service" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- "skynet@omail.hu" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- "skynet@omail.hu" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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: "Euro Million Mega Lottery" <eurogalottery@wraped.net>
Reply-To: skynet@omail.hu
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:46:03 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: WINNING/CLIAMS NOTIFICATION OF
=?iso-8859-1?Q?=80_1.5Million_EURO!!!?=
Dear Email User,
EUROMILLIONS RESULTS
(Euro Mega Lottery Game 2010)
Congratulation for your winning, Your Email Address have just won the sum
of €1.5 Million Euro cash credited to a file in the Online Euro Million
Mega Lottery Game Programme held 15th march,2010.You are to contact
furnished the Delivery Courier service Company Immediately for
documemtation and delivery of your winning cheque/certificate of €1.5
Million Euro.to avoid delay...
====================================
Your e-mail address attached to:
Winner Pin No:306/10.
Secret No:089188/10
Winning Date: 15th march,2010
====================================
Note: All Reponse should be sent to Agent via email: skynet@omail.hu
1.Full Name 2.Address: 3.Age/Gender 4.Occupation 5.Nationality
6.Phone Number 7.Have you won a lottery before?(YES/NO)8.Amount
Won?.
Send details to Mr. Eliot Gomez
SkyNet World Express Asia.
Tell: + 60 173 514 654
E-mail: skynet@omail.hu
Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this programme.
Yours Truly,
Asia On-line Coordinator.
Euro Millions Lottery
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Anti-fraud resources:
