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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:
- "morgan@euromillions.icexchange.org" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Peggy Sesay" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <morgan@euromillions.icexchange.org>
Date: Thu, 6 May 2010 03:14:26 +0200
Subject: ATM CARD
OUR REF:NGR/ATM/822
YOUR REF:CLAIMS/ATM/822
This is to officially inform you that (ATM Card Number 4278763100030014) has been accredited in your
favor and your Personal Identification Number is 822 from Euromillions.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in our Computerized Email Selection
System (C.E.S.S.) from a database of over a million email addresses from the World Wide Web.
Each email address was attached to a ticket number and your email address with ticket number:
KY/09/HG/7BN was randomly selected as the star prize winner amongst other consolation prize winners.
The ATM Card Value is US$350,000. You are advised to contact
Rev. Patrick Morgan
Foreign Remittance dept
Euromillions International
Email: morgan@euromillions.icexchange.org
with the following information's;
FULL NAME:
DELIVERY ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER:
OCCUPATION:
AGE:
Regards,
Mrs Peggy Sesay
Issuing Department
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Anti-fraud resources:
