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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:
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "claimfacebookaward@yandex.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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: "Facebook Incorporation" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <claimfacebookaward@yandex.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2016 02:09:52 -0000
Subject: Facebook Promotion Award
Desk of the Secretary.
Award Promotions Dept.
FaceBook Group Incorporation
Ref:637- FaceBook,
United-Kingdom
Attention: Winner
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual draws held on the (5th of January 2016) by facebook group in cash
Promotion to compensate facebook users as well as encourage the usage of face book world wide.
Your email was among the 20 Lucky winners who won the total reward of Three hundred and fifty thousand United state dollars($640.000.00 USD)
each on the the face book group promotion Award.
Attached Serial No(556543450906) to ticket number (5647600545188) and ballot number (Ref: 2551256003/23) The online draws was Conducted by a random
selection of email and you where picked by an Advanced automated random computer search from the face book database.
In other to claim your US$640.000.00 USD contact the Online Coordinator Forward your details as below to the coordinator office for processing of your payment data.
FULL NAME:
FULL CONTACT ADDRESS:
MOBILE PHONE NUMBER:
OCCUPATION:
MARITAL STATUS
DATE OF BIRTH:
COUNTRY:
Ticket NUMBER:
BATCH NUMBER:
REF. NUMBER:
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS:
These details will enable the issuance of your certificate of winning for your payment by your paying bank.
Accept Our hearty congratulations once again.
Sincerely,
Salen Hanks
Online Coordinator
Email: claimfacebookaward@yandex.com
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