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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: "Dr. Daniel Anderson" <claimagent247@gmail.com>
Reply-To: doxology@hotmail.co.uk
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:46:16 +0800 (SGT)
Subject: CONGRATULATION!!!
MICROSOFT COMPANY UNITED KINGDOM,
REGISTERED IN ENGLAND No 929027,
REGISTERED OFFICE:135 BISHOPSGATE LONDON EC2M 3UR.
REFERENCE NUMBER: UK/839030X2/14
BATCH NUMBER: 065/088/XY24
TICKET NUMBER: 023-1111-790-458
12/07/2012
This message is to notify you that this email address was randomly selected among over 20 million other e-mail addresses and entered into our free Microsoft poverty alleviation promotional lottery draws through a computer balloting system. You have subsequently emerged a winner among ten other lucky winners and therefore entitled to a substantial amount of (£750,000.00 GBP) in cash credited to file EAAL/9080118308/08
For further information, kindly confirm the receipt of this email; by forwarding the required below information to our claim department for final processing
BENEFICIARY INFORMATION
(1) BENEFICIARY FULL NAME__________
(2)SEX__________
(3) DATE OF BIRTH___________
(4) MARITAL STATUS____________
(5) OCCUPATION_______________
(6) RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS____________
(7) STATE___________
(8) NATIONALITY _________
(9) MOBILE NUMBER___________
(10) AMOUNT WON________________
(11) REFERENCE NUMBER_________
(12) BATCH NUMBER: ____________
(13) TICKET NUMBER:___________
OPTIONS OF PAYMENT: BANK TO BANK WIRE TRANSFER OR COURIER DELIEVERY OF INTERNATIONAL BANK DRAFT.
NB: payment of your winning funds will be released to you within two days after the confirmation of your details. Feel free to contact the undersigned for any clarification or assistance that you may require and be rest assured as we remain to serve you better.
Note: This program was organized by Microsoft Charity Organization for poverty alleviation
Thank you.
Yours Sincerely,
DR: DANIEL ANDERSON Award Notification Team
MICROSOFT INC. (UK. Regional Office)
Link: https://sites.google.com/site/microawardepartment/announcements
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Anti-fraud resources:
