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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "million pounds" (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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- 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.
- davedawes89@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Dave Dawes" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <davedawes89@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2012 23:17:19 +0800
Subject: CHARITY DONATION
Hello Dear Email User!!!
This is a personal email directed to you,
I am Dave Dawes, My fiance and I won a Jackpot Lottery of 101 million
pounds ($156 million), and have voluntarily decided to donate the sum
of 1 million pounds ($1.56 million) to you as part of our own charity
project to improve the lot of 15-20 unknown lucky individuals all over
the world plus 15 close friends and family. If you have received this
email then you are one of the lucky recipients and all you have to do
is get back with us so that we can send your details to the payout bank
for fund disbursement.
You can verify this by visiting the web pages below.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8820740/101m-lottery-jackpot-winners-Dave-and-Angela-Dawes-to-give-millions-to-friends-and-family.html ... 0740/101m-
lottery-jackpot-winners-Dave-and-Angela-Dawes-to-give-millions-to-
friends-andfamily.html
Please for us to see and read your mail, reply to Dave Dawe through
this Email: (davedawes89@gmail.com)
Good luck,
DAVE DAWES/CHARITY DONATION.
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Anti-fraud resources:
