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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:
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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!
- 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.
- wbpepluckywinner1@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs.jane wood." <donrich979@gmail.com>
Reply-To: wbpepluckywinner1@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2020 16:47:47 +0100
Subject: Congratulations Lucky Winner!
Congratulations Lucky Winner! (2020 WBPEP Lottery Award)
You are among the lucky winners that have won $25,000,000.00,(Twenty
Five Million United States Dollar) Each from the (WORLD BANK POVERTY
ERADICATION PROGRAM) (WBPEP) Lottery Draw.Lucky winners were randomly
selected
from emails users email addresses. The World Bank financial
Empowerment to assist the less privilege and people in need to
eradicate poverty.This Lottery draw is called( WORLD BANK POVERTY
ERADICATION PROGRAM)You are among
the lucky winners and requested to send the following information to
enable our Winners Team to process your claim and deliver your'''Fund
Package within 72 hours at your door step in your Country latest.
Full Name:
Home Address:
Work Address:
Age:
Sex:
Nationality:
Country:
Phone:
Email Address:
Send the above information to (wbpepluckywinner1@gmail.com) for our
Lottery Processing Team to Process and
deliver your fund package to your door step.This Price will be
processed and delivered to you under 48 Hours from the day your
information is confirmed.
Thanks.
Mrs.jane wood.
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Anti-fraud resources:
