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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.
- 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.
- prosegursegur@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
- antonio maretti. telephone :+ 34 634 182 395. email: prosegursegur@aim.com prosegurseguro@aim.com regards, mrs.larrau giorgio sandi. (Aim; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "Super Enalotto International" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <info.prosu@gmx.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 23:20:21 -0300
Subject: Dear Winner - Annual Prize 2010.
Dear Winner,
We the Super Enalotto International wish to congratulate
you over your email success in our balloting program.
This is a Millennium Annual lottery balloting program of 2010 in
which email addresses of recipients were selected randonly and
entered in the program. It is a promotional program aimed at
encouraging internet users; therefore you do not need to buy ticket
to enter for it, all tickets were electronically selected and attached
to emails of recipients and among emails of recipients selected your
email address emerge as the Winning email Address.
We hereby wish to notify you that your Email Address attached to
the Winning Ticket Number: 5-9-25-30-76-81, a Reference Number:
EG/069713160012 and a Serial nr: 2443-05
has won you approved star prize of 515,810.00 Euros.(Five Hundred
And Fifteen Thousand Eight Hundred And Ten Euros)
To claim your winning prize you are to contact the appointed
agent as soon as possible for the immediate release of your
winnings:
PROSEGUR SEGURIDAD. S.A.
Dr. Don. Antonio Maretti.
Telephone :+ 34 634 182 395.
Email: prosegursegur@aim.com
prosegurseguro@aim.com
Regards,
Mrs.Larrau Giorgio Sandi.
connsultmeritsa
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Anti-fraud resources: