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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:
- "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)
- 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.
- realdirectorworldhealtyorg@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: DOCTOR TEDROS ADHANOM <danielschulman396@gmail.com>
Reply-To: realdirectorworldhealtyorg@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2022 20:30:37 -0700
Subject: URGENT DELIVERY
--
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
HEADQUARTERS.
GENEVA SWITZERLAND
Greetings
We are pleased to announce to you the result of the World Health
Organization international live sms grant held this December 2021.
Your mobile telephone number was attached to ticket number: On behalf
of the entire Convid 19 relief palliative team, we wish to
congratulate all the sponsors, partners especially Telecom for
providing the Mobile Directories for the Relief Programme. Every
participant was selected randomly from the computer ballot system.
The World Health Organization in collaboration with its Parent
Organization United Nations Economic and Social Council looked at the
coronavirus pandemic damage on the world economy and decided to help
individuals and companies to bounce back to their respective
businesses. While basking in the euphoria of this achievement, we wish
to seize this opportunity to acquaint you with guidelines that must be
followed in order to complete this claim. On our part, we have a
mandate to see you through. We will work assiduously to realize this
mandate as we respect your views, opinions and most importantly
protect your privacy.
Please, kindly provide us with the following information for
verification of your prize and production of your prize certificate;
Which worth $10.5 million dollars
VIA: realdirectorworldhealtyorg@gmail.com
Full name.......................... ..............
Full address....................... .............
Age........................... .....................
Sex........................... .....................
Nationality.............. ........................
ID Card.................…...........................
Regards
General Director of the World Health Organization
Dr Tedros Adhanom
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Anti-fraud resources:
