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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!
Fraud email example:
From: info@uno.com
Reply-To: department-uniifem@LIVE.COM
Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:09:01 -0200 (FNT)
Subject:
http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=571
http://www.unwomen.org/
:YEAR 2011 EMAIL PRIZE AWARD:
United Nations Development Fund For Women. UNIFEM CONGRATULATE YOU FOR
THE SECOND PLACE WINNER FOR WOMEN DEVELOPMENT TRUST FUNDS
Your email address with Winning ID...(UNIFEM -154/4456/011) was luckily
drawn to be this year's second place winner a cash prize of 550,000.00
Euros.(FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND EUROS) This money we believe will
enable you make some impact in the society.
The Trust Fund Also supports innovative in developing countries that
aim to break new models and mobilize new constituencies in the growing
movement to eliminate violence against women in all its manifestations.
Grantees have worked to prevent human trafficking in the world.This
promotion is one of various ways we are presently using to achieve this
global vision of ours.
**Your Full Name...............
**Address......................
**Phone number.................
**Gender.......................
**Winning email and Winning ID..............
**Country.......................
Special greetings from the entire Staffs of United Nations Development
Fund For Women Worldwide.(UNIFEM).
Signed, Mrs. Jane Mary.
(UNIFEM SECRETARY SPAIN.)
________________________________________________________
*NOTE* you must be 18 years or older to claim. Late response is not
accepted. Misconduct and non-adherence to instructions leads to prize
termination.
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Anti-fraud resources:
