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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:
- "million 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)
- ",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)
- "my names are " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- 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: Richard Wahl <benukanna@gmail.com>
Reply-To: richardwahl123@aol.com
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2020 05:11:10 -0700
Subject: Hello Sir/Madam
Hello Sir/Madam,
My names are Richard Wahl I won the mega Powerball New Jersey Lottery
jackpot of $533Million few months ago and I have voluntarily decided to
donate $5,000,000.00 (five Million Dollars) each to 10 individuals randomly
as part of my charity project and also to help those affected by this so
called Corona Virus going on around the whole world. I have also supported
some hospitals with some amount of money for my own kind gesture.
To verify my lottery winning please see my interview by visiting the web
page below for a proof:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NejIUDafu3U
After a computer spinball your email address was among the 10 random emails
which were submitted to me as the email user you have been choose to
receive five million dollars for this Corona Virus charity work ; if you
have received my email, kindly send to me the below details for further
action on how to receive the above stated amount.
Full Names:
Mobile No:
Age:
Address:
Occupation:
Best Regards,
Richard Wahl
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