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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.
- wdft@inmail24.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Jonathan Bell" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <wdft@student.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:36:05 +0100
Subject: Winning Notification
Dearest,
Winning Notification.
We are pleased to inform you that your name and email address has been drawn in the United Nation Internet Advancement and Poverty Alleviation Program and has won the prize of $31,000 (Thirty One Thousand United States Dollars Only). This program is designed to enhance and promote the use of the internet. Your are one of the 50 winners drawn round the world. To confirm your claim to this money, you are to send the following to us via your secured and reliable email address:
Your Full Name:
Address:
Telephone No:
We shall use the above information to reconfirm that we have the right person before sending out the bank draft of USD$31,000. Forward the information to our collation agent:
Name: Mrs. Theresa May.
Email: wdft@inmail24.com
Tel/Fax: 448701346475
Address: P.O. Box 112 Glasgow
Scotland UK
Please note that you have only 30 days from the date of this mail to apply and collect your prize money. This agency reserve the right to roll over these funds and pass it to the runner up should you not confirm your winnings within the 30 days time frame.
Yours truly,
Mr. Jonathan Bell.
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