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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.
- 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.
- ds_qualify@hotmail.co.uk (Hotmail, United Kingdom; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: Bill Gibson <gibsonb@netkaster.ca>
Reply-To: ds_qualify@hotmail.co.uk
Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2011 04:17:26 -0800
Subject: YOU HAVE WON
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369
IDENTIFICATION NUMBER:CPEL/OWN/9876.
Dear Winner,
We happily announce to you the draw #1353 of the UK LOTTERY,held on 1st of December, 2011. Your e-mail which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of 850,000 GBP. Your e-mail address attached to ticket
no.: 56475600545 188 with Serial no. 5368/02 drew the lucky no.:09.11.23.27.49.33. {36} Bonus Ball. Our European agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact her.
Your are to contact the following Transfer agents as stated below:Mrs Sandra Dalwin, ds_qualify@hotmail.co.uk
http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/results/results.do
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Anti-fraud resources:
