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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 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: "Zurich Lotterien" <zurichlotterien@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 08:16:37 -0400
Subject: Claiming Prize Reminder
Dear Winner,
RE: Claiming Prize Reminder
This is to remind you in regards to the claim process of your winning prize.
If it is inconvenient for you to travel to London office to claim your prize, you can simple follow the claim procedure that was sent to you in our previews email and also Keep copies of the Winner letter for reference purposes.
NOTE: All winning prize must be claimed within 60 days from the date of this notics.
Acknowledge the receipt of this email
Regards,
Mrs bridget
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Anti-fraud resources:
