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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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- 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: office file <office.file92@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2018 14:06:01 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Dear Sir/Madam
Dear Sir/Madam
This is to bring to your notice that your winning funds which is on hold and not yet released to you up till this moment is now approved to your favor. After the meeting held on 20 July 2018, the Board of Directors of international cricket council [ICC]Â has agreed that your fund payments pending have been approved to be paid to you through a bank transfer/ Online transfer.
This decision was taken after an online draw was conducted and your email picked among selected few individual who will benefit from this year ICC lottery winning bonanza. On receipt of this email, you should count yourself as the lucky individual. Kindly get back to me with below details at your earliest convenience, so I know your email address is valid.
DO PROVIDE THEM WITH YOUR BELOW INFORMATION:
Full Name:Telephone:Postal address:Country:
Best Regards,Mr. Anderson Cole.Director Payment Notification.E-Mail:icc.award.promo@inbox.eu
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Anti-fraud resources:
