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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "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)
- "barr." (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "I AM DAVE DAWES" <info@mail.org>
Reply-To: infocharlessolicitors@officials.co.uk
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 02:25:09 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: GUUTU992
Dear friend
This is a personal email directed to you. I am Dave Dawes, my fiancee and I
won a Jackpot Lottery of 101 million pounds ($156 million) in October, 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 5
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 Please contact my legal adviser Barr. Charles via the same
email based in United Kingdom because I have given him instructions to
deliver this money to you as soon as possible.
You can contact my legal adviser Barr. Charles his email
[infocharlessolicitors@officials.co.uk] just tell him that you are
contacting him under instruction from Code:GUUTU992 he will honor my WILL
and pay you within Fourth eight hours. Please send him your I.D, Phone and
Address for verification and payment processing. My spirit will be
uplifted once you get this money.
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
Best of luck,
GUUTU992
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Anti-fraud resources:
