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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:
- "chambers" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- "nokiaanniversaryclaimdepartment@live.co.uk" (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!
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447010285619 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "NOKIA MOBILE COMPANY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <nokiaanniversaryclaimdepartment@live.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 20:35:43 +0530
Subject: NOKIA MOBILE PROMOTIONAL AWARD NOTIFICATION E-MAIL
NOKIA CO-OPERATION
22 GARDEN CLOSE STAMFORD
LICE PE92YP, LONDON
UNITED KINGDOM
Nokia Mobile Promotional (UK)
Dear Email -account owner,
Congratulation as your E-mail has won you a swooping of (Eight Hundred
Thousand Pounds starlings ) £800.000.00 on the ongoing Nokia is
Celebrating (16 YEARS) Anniversary in the United Kingdom. Your winning
information is bellow as your email was attached to the ticket number
(NOK2119AD) and ballot number (NOK84-008-2011-T56).
The draws was conducted by a random selection of existing 10,000 lucky
e-mails addresses which was selected from computerized database system
(FESS) the e-mail address of individuals and corporations bodies, picked
by an advanced automated random computer search from over (450) e-mail for
all over the world. Our winning notification is sent via e-mails to all
lucky e-mails winners and your e-mail address falls among the (450) lucky
e-mails addresses
1.FULL NAMES OF BENEFICIARY:
2.RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
3.DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
4.NAME AND ADDRESS OF NEXT OF KIN:
5.PHONE NO:
6.SEX:
7.OCCUPATION:
8.MARITAL STATUS:
9.NATIONALITY:
10.Ticket Number and Ballot number:
11.AMOUNT WON:
nokiaanniversaryclaimdepartment@live.co.uk
CONTACT THE EMAIL BELOW
Name: Mr. Peterson Chambers
(PROMOTION MANAGER)
TEL (+44)7010285619
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Anti-fraud resources:
