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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:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- 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: "Euro Million lotteries" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <euroclaims22@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 19:23:21 +0300
Subject: Notification letter from the Euro Million Lottery International
REFERENCE NO: BC-0363T
CODE NUMBER: T-132/T
This is to inform you about the latest concluded result of the Euro Million Lottery promotion program,
And you have been selected among the seventeen international winner of the year 2012 season.
You are required to forward your reference and code numbers to your claims agents for
processing of your winning fund
For more information's call +34-911-234-755
Don Gilberto Garcia
This E-mail and attachments are private, intended solely for the use of the addressee. If you are not the
Intended recipient of this E-mail, they have been sent to you in error: any use of information in them is
Strictly prohibited.
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Anti-fraud resources:
