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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: LOTTO OFFICE <xxukof100@live.com>
Reply-To: contactcc@pisem.net
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 16:02:27 +0100
Subject: Your email have won 2,000.000.00 Euro!
Your email have won 2,000.000.00 Euro (Two Million Euro only), in the Euro millions Email Sweepstakes Program Corporation, held on the 14th of July 2012 .In London United Kingdom. We write to officially notify you of this award and to advise you to contact our office immediately
for the claim.
WINNING INFORMATION'S
E-mail Ticket Number:
Reference EP35-44-09-62-17
Serial Number HW101/98541
Batch Number WX23/52641
Draw Lucky BX Numbers 8-10-14-21-26-3*4
Your Full Name & Telephone Number
Please note that the validity period of the winning is 30 working days; hence you are expected to make your claims immediately. Any claim not made before this date will be CANCELLED.
Congratulations!!!
Sincerely,
Mrs.Francis Cole.
Promotions Coordinator.
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Anti-fraud resources:
