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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "hundred thousand great british 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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- "ecowas " (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- 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.
- wandasingk0000@gmail.com (Gmail/GoogleMail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: Wanda Singk <wandasingk0000@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2015 12:06:20 -0800
Subject: OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
THE LOTTERY DEPARTMENT
Zennith Citi
OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
This is to inform you that have been selected for a cash prize of
£2,600,000.00 ( Two Million Six Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds)
International programs held on the 29th of September 2014 in the
Houston Texas United State.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in our
computerized email selection system(ess) from a database of over
250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world.
The ZENITH CITI Promotional Lottery is approved by the ECOWAS Gaming
Board and also Licensed by the The International Association of Gaming
Regulators (IAGR). This lottery is the 3rd of its kind and we intend
to sensitize the public.
For further details of your prize.Contact me : wandasingk0000@gmail.com
regards,
Mr Wang
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Anti-fraud resources:
