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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:
- "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "very confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- 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!
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447010043059 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- 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.
- info.sipclaims@aol.com (AOL; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Julie Arterton." <juliearteton@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: info.sipclaims@aol.com
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 23:32:03 +0800
Subject: Please read this(Important Notice)..
On behalf of the VW Motors Email Lottery and from the desk of the claims
department, we gladly notify you of your lucky win of a total of
£1,050,000 GBP (ONE MILLION & FIFTY THOUSAND BRITISH POUNDS) in the VW
Motors Email Lottery Promotion held on the 28Th November 2013.
your email address was extracted from our electronic email extraction
system and attached to ticket number VJETTA-UK-VP990003-M4GA with draw
number P93VWJ which consequently won you in the 2nd category prize.
We also advise that you keep your winning information very confidential as
our security policy demands to avoid double claims/impersonation and
unwarranted abuse of this program by some individuals.
Kindly send us the below information:
1. NAME IN FULL:
2. ADDRESS (IN FULL):
3. NATIONALITY:
4. AGE:
5. SEX
6. OCCUPATION (POSITION HELD):
7. HOME PHONE & MOBILE NUMBER:
Customer Service Unit
Mr. Elvis Bowie .
Email: info.sipclaims@aol.com
Tel. : +44-701-004-3059
All winning must be claimed not later than one Week of Acknowledgment.
Yours in service,
Mrs. Julie Arterton.
(Programs & Events).
Material Copyright © 2014 The VW Co. Ltd.
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