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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:
- "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- 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 Corporation" <office@pui.com>
Reply-To: microsft_claimsdept@xnmsn.com
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:50:04 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: End Of Year Promo Winner
Congratulation, we are please to notify you that your email was selected
through an electronic email ballot system along side 3 others as a
category 2 winner in this year Microsoft Corporation end of year
promo. You have won and therefore been approved for a total pay out of
Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds (750,000.00 GBP) The following
particulars are attached to your lotto payment order:
Winning Numbers :47-14-34-85-67-32
Ticket Number: MSW35043
Contact the underlined claims officer with the information below:
AGENT: Mr.Thompson Brantley
EMAIL: microsft_claimsdept@xnmsn.com
You are to send the details below to process the immediate payment
of your prize.
1. Full Name:
2. Sex:
3. Telephone Number:
4. Age:
5. Occupation:
6. Country:
!!!Once Again Congratulations!!!
Yours Sincerely,
Fety Veronique
ONLINE CO-ORDINATOR.
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Anti-fraud resources:
