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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!
- 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.
- elizbath.beckmann@aol.com (AOL; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: Mrs Elizath Beckmann <elizbatharm100@yahoo.pt>
Reply-To: Mrs Elizath Beckmann <elizbath.beckmann@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 23:00:25 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Dear Prize Winner,
Dear Prize Winner,
Your E-mail Address has won you £35,5 Million ,Great British Pounds from United Kingdom National Lottery Board (UKNLB)2015 charity Bonanza. The draw brought out your Email Address from a Data Base of Internet Users and qualified you a winner of the stated winning amount.
Â
Stated below are your identification numbers:
Reference Number: 7-04-03-01-53-6-9
Serial Number: 7812-015
You are required to fill the form below and send it to the Promotion manager of United Kingdom National Lottery Board (UKNLB) for verification and how to claim your wining amount of (£35,5M GBP).
You‘re required to fill in the below form
1. Name   Â
2. Address         Â
3. Make sure you send this details to the Undersigned person to enable Mrs Elizath Beckmann,Promotion Manager submit your returned filled Application Form to the Appointed Bank for prompt Payment.
4. Mobile Number
5. Sex.        Â
6. Age.             Â
7. Occupation    Â
8. Current City
9. Nationality
10. Bank Name
11. Account Name
12. Account Number
13. Winning Amount.. Have you won before?.
14. Winning E-mail Address…
15. A SCAN COPY OF YOUR 4X4 PHOTO
Regards.
Mrs Elizath Beckmann
Promotion Manager
elizbath.beckmann@aol.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
