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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: Notification Officer <msg@gisp.com>
Reply-To: wfra@superposta.com
Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 16:00:29 +0200
Subject: Notification
GOOGLE INC. WINNING NOTFICATION
WINNING NO: GIWWIUPDLUKGXXNMSSX
BATCH NO: 554XXCVZY3UDGHJKKLN
REF NO: XXFDGIUR00MX167SSXX
Attn: Winner,
Your e-mail address was among the Star Pick from an Automated Ballot
System, which means you are entitled to receive the Grand Reward $1.7
Million USD. The Prize is as a result of Reward Program for the
Patronage of World Wide Internet Users Promotional Draw conducted in
England by Google Inc. In order to claim your Prize; you are required to
send your information as follows to enable me process your claim.
1. First Names
2. Last Name
3. Complete Address
4. Phone Number
5. Mobile Phone
6. Occupation
7. Age
8. Nationality
Congratulations,
Nelson J. Bruce
Notification Officer Google Inc
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Anti-fraud resources:
