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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:
- "million dollars" (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)
- "hundred thousand united state dollars" (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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- 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!
Fraud email example:
From: "MICROSOFT COMPENSATION ORGANISATION" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <rev.omottaken1@qatar.io>
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2011 02:37:07 +0530
Subject: Attention: Dear Prominent User of the Internet
Attention: Dear Prominent User of the Internet
How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family?
hope this mail meets you in a perfect condition. This is from a total cash
prize of US ($500,000,000.00) Five Hundred Million Dollars given to The
first One thousand (1000) people who will be compensated in this world
internet Programs.
All participants were selected randomly from Worldwide Web site through
computer draws system and extracted from over 700 companies I am using
this opportunity to thank you for using the internet daily.
Due to your effort, using internet programs indoor and in your office or
at home, we want to compensate you and show our Gratitude to you With the
sum of ($500,000.00) Five Hundred Thousand United States of America
Dollars. We have authorized Rev. Omotta Ken to assist in getting your
compensation Funds transfer across you.
Contact Details.
Name: Rev. Omotta Ken
E-mail: rev.omottaken@qatar.io
Finaally remember that we have forwarded instruction to Rev. Omotta Ken on
your behalf to send the cash prize of ($500,000.00)Five Hundred Thousand
United State Dollars to you as soon as you contact him with your Delivery
address and Telephone numbers without delay.
Hope to hear from you soon as soon as you've got my compensation Funds.
Chief Dr. Osworth Daniel
Presidential Library & Museum
Former Director International Online
Lottery Co-ordination. © 2011 WORLD.........
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Anti-fraud resources:
