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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:
- "hundred thousand great british pounds" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "ycd@live.co.uk" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- "ycd@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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Yahoo!" <andrew.wilson11@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ycd@live.co.uk
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2011 01:56:03 -0700
Subject: Congratulations
*[image: Yahoo! News
-Lottery]*<http://us.ard.yahoo.com/CMP%3d229/ELEM%3d15106477/UID%3d712/U%3d112002491/L%3dlid%3a15005416/E%3d5YL7W5wjwCWp5dFuSTQO/D%3dmail/M%3d287466.7609950.8481748.7383539/A%3d3160424/S%3d24244634/SIG%3d140ljkr5t/%2ahttp%3a//e.my.yahoo.com/config/set_cstheme?.page=p2&.partner=&.intl=us&.done=http://my.yahoo.com/index.html&.src=my&v9>
*Dear Winner
This is to re-inform you that your email address won our a won prize money
of Six Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling which was organized by
Yahoo! UK&Ireland for the introduction of the new Yahoo! Classic Mail which
all Yahoo! users are required to switch onto to the whole wild world.
We arrange and gather some of all the e-mail addresses of the people that
are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo! e-mail
addresses and few from other e-mail providers. We only select SIX (6)
candidates per annually as our winners through Electronic Balloting System
(EBS) without the candidate applying. We congratulate you for being one of
the people selected as lucky numbers :(-02-06-21-34-35-49-(46-)"bonus no 46.
Which subsequently won” you the lottery in the 2nd category i.e. match 5
plus bonus.
PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
We are sorry that your Payment Approval File was sent to Nigeria because we
have four lucky winners in Africa. You are to contact our Africa Location
Claim Office on or before your date of Claim so that you can be cleared and
paid simultaneously there.
Yahoo! Lottery Prize must be claimed not later than 21 days from date of
Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won. Any prize not
claimed within this period (21 days) will be forfeited.
These are your identification numbers:
KTU Number......................../9023118308/03
Serial Number ...........................5368/02
Ticket Number.................... 5647560054188
To claim your prize money, you are therefore advised to send the following
information below to e-mail address and a copy to us below in order to
facilitate them and process the transfer of your fund with the appointed
bank or Delivery Company.
Email: ycd@live.co.uk<http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=ycd@live.co.uk>
Cell: +2348030559016
Fax: 08702885153
Send your Identification Numbers/Your Personal Information to her
immediately:
Personal Information
1. Full name..................
2. Country.....................
3. Contact Address........... (P.O. Box is not allowed)
4. Telephone Number...........
5. Marital Status..............
6. Occupation....................
7. Age.........................
8. Sex...........................
9. Country of origin...........
Congratulations once again.
Yours in service,
Mr. Peter Try
(Chief Co-ordinator Yahoo! UK&Ireland Lottery)
Now take the next step and claim your money and say thanks to Yahoo!
KEEP THIS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL UNTIL YOU RECEIVE YOUR PRIZE MONEY TO
AVOID DOUBLE CLAIM.
NOTE THAT NOBODY OR EVEN THE APPOINTED BANK HAS THE RIGHT TO TOUCH,
DEDUCT/CUT OR GET ACCESS TO YOUR PRIZE MONEY FOR ANY REASON THEY HAVE BEEN
WARNED STRICTLY!
If you have questions or wish to claim your prize money kindly contact us,
+447011184252 see the instructions at the body of this message
YAHOO! UK & IRELAND
COPYRIGHT (C) 1999-2011 YAHOO LOTTERY AWARD INC.*
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