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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:
- "from: the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "hundred thousand united states dollars" (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)
- 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: "MARK ZUCKERBERG" (may be fake)
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2017 21:47:59 -0700
Subject: GOOD NEWS
FACEBOOK ONLINE PROMO 2017
FROM: THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT.
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD
CONGRATULATIONS FROM FACEBOOK!!!
Facebook the largest Social Networking site valued at over $100 Billion US Dollars with over One Billion Users coming mainly from Mobile devices has decided to reward individuals and Companies by it's 2017 Online Promotion Program.
Your Name and Email has been announced as being among the 50 Lucky winners from the ongoing Facebook online promo 2017. Which is for real and legitimate that you have just won the sum of $500,000 USD(Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars).
The online draws was conducted by a random selection of accounts and you were picked by an advanced automated random computer search from Facebook.
The promo program which is a new innovation by Facebook, is aimed at saying a big thank you to all our users for making Facebook their number one means to connect, communicate, relate and hook up with their families and friends over the years.
Kindly secure this numbers to enable you claim your prize.
Ref No (2551256002/244) and Serial Number (55643451907) Do write it down and reply to this mail for further instruction on how to claim your prize.
Best Regards,
Peter Smith,
+1(424) 231-5229
HEAD OF DISBURSEMENT DEPARTMENT.
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Anti-fraud resources:
