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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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "here in united kingdom" (this email uses bad English)
- 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.
- 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.
- iccworld2015@hotmail.com (Hotmail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: WebOffice
Reply-To: <iccworld2015@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2015 05:02:24 +0530
Subject: INTERNATIONAL CRICKET PROMO 2015
INTERNATIONAL CRICKET (2015/16) PROMOTION AWARD
DEAR SIR/MADAM,
This correspondence officially confirms that we are aware of your e-mail regarding the award winning prize value of Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand great British pounds [£850,000 GBP].
Won in just concluded INTERNATIONAL CRICKET PROMOTIONS AWARD held here in UNITED KINGDOM ENGLAND.
The board of trustee of INTERNATIONAL CRICKET COUNCIL collects 375,000 e-mail address from all the mail network services in all over Asian and Europe
countries and over twenty million e-mail address participated in this award promotion and seven persons from seven different countries were selected to benefit from this INTERNATIONAL CRICKET PROMOTIONS and you are one of the Selected lucky Winner.
You are to fill and submit the Verification form below,
TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE, COPY THE BOX BELOW AND SUPPLY
THE INFORMATION NEEDED AND SEND IT TO: iccworld2015@hotmail.com
Your Personal Information;
NAME: ......................................................................
PHONE NUMBER: ..............................................................
CONTACT ADDRESS: ...........................................................
COUNTRY: ...................................................................
CITY: ......................................................................
STATE: ....................................................................
SEX: .......................................................................
AGE: .......................................................................
OCCUPATION: …...............................................................
WINNING EMAIL ADDRESS: .....................................................
BEST REGARDS
Mr David Richardson
INTERNATIONAL CRICKET PROMO CORDNATOR
Email- iccworld2015@hotmail.com
TEL: +447873935513
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Anti-fraud resources:
