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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.
- The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "microsoft lottery" (no such lottery exists)
- 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.
- boarduk33@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "YahooMicrosoft Lottery Board." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <boarduk14@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:25:43 -0700
Subject: Congratulations: Your Email Has Won
YahooMicrosoft Lottery Board
NATIONALE POSTCODE LOTERIJ
REGISTERED UNDER THE DATA PROTECTION
ACT OF;(Registration U971133B).
Dear Email Owner,
We are happy to announce that this email has won in this month category of the Yahoo/Microsoft-National Postcode
Lottery draws.This makes you a
proud winner of One Million Euro.This lottery is organised for the benefit of all internet email users all
around the world.This lottery is organised by Yahoo/Microsoft Online Board in conjunction with National
Postcode Lottery.
The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an
exclusive list of 29,031,643 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked
by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. However, no
tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for
representation and privacy.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized
email selection machine (TOPAZ) .
This Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also licensed by the
International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR).This lottery is the 3rd of its
kind and we intend to sensitize the public.
You are to reply to this email and send the below informations for claims.
1. Name:
2. Address:
3. Occupation:
4. Age:
5. Sex:
6. Nationality:
7. Country of Residence:
8. Telephone Number:
REPLIES SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO: boarduk33@yahoo.com.hk
This email is registered and sent only to a certified Yahoo/Microsoft-National Postcode
promo winner.
You are to keep this award strictly from public notice until your claim
has been processed and your money remitted to you.
This is part of our security protocol to avoid issues of friends or
relatives trying to claim a prize on the rightful winner's behalf.
Our special thanks and gratitude to Bill Gates and associates.Accept our
hearty congratulations once again.
PAMELA ANN BANDARA (MRS.)
DIRECTOR; CLAIMS DEPARTMENT.
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Anti-fraud resources:
