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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- "barr." (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- "courier service" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- 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.
- barr.charles1954@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Francesco Masoni" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <barr.charles1954@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2015 20:36:27 -0400
Subject: NOTICE.
Dear Beneficiary,
We happily announce to you the draw of the Globe Foundation Welfare Support Scheme. Online sweepstakes International program held on the 27th OCTOBER, 2015. Your online email account has been picked as a one of the lucky winner of $850,000.00 ( Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand United State Dollar) by Globe Foundation Welfare. Your fund has been loaded into ATM Visa Debit Card by our issuing bank ( United Bank for Africa) for delivery to your address.
NOTE: You are to contact our zonal payment coordinator IMMEDIATELY on his email: ( barr.charles1954@gmail.com ) Barr. Charles Olu, with your details for delivery of your ATM Visa Card to you through DHL Express courier service.
Your Ref: Code is UN-DMP-3999-VOL21X-14.
Best Regards,
Dr. Francesco Masoni
Payments Committee - European Commission
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Anti-fraud resources:
