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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:
- "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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "larrystan@9.cn" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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: "BLACKBERRY 12TH ANNIVERSARY AWARDS CENTER" <larrystan@bb.net>
Reply-To: larrystan@9.cn
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:18:15 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Your Winning No is: NG-094517-BB
BLACKBERRY 12TH ANNIVERSARY AWARDS CENTER.
Congratulations Dear Winner from the BLACKBERRY® Management and Staff
Ticket No is: BB5050
Your Winning No is: NG-094517-BB
This is to inform you that you have won yourself an Award of Eight hundred
thousand United State Dollars (800,000 USD) in the Blackberry 12th year
Anniversary Awards as organized by the Anniversary Center of Blackberry
Inc, held in Nigeria,
Blackberry is a line of mobile e-mail and Smartphone devices developed and
designed by company Research in Motion (RIM). The Anniversary Center of
Blackberry Inc selected your email ID as one of the 120 chosen fortunate
winners to receive this award Promotion. Awards must be claimed by the
email owner ONLY, not later than 30 days from the day of notification.
Please you are advised to fill for your claim immediately through our
agent Mr.Peter Jack Immediately by providing him with the bellow stated
information:
Full Name.....................
Sex...........................
Winning Number................NG-094517-BB
Age...........................
Occupation....................
Full Mobile +.................
Email Address.................
Residential Contact...........
Marital Status................
State and Nationality.........
Director of Peoples Operations:
Name: Mr. Larry Stan
E-Mail: larrystan@9.cn
Please do not reply if you are NOT the owner of this email address.
Congratulations once again!!
Sincerely Yours,
Dr. Williams Jordan (Zonal Coordinator)
Note: No tickets were sold! Your Winning No is: NG-094517-BB; Bonus NO is:
BB-0446-MP, Ticket No is: BB5050 to process your winning funds:
Copyrights © 2011 BLACKBERRY® CORPORATION
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Anti-fraud resources: