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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:
- "transferred into your bank account" (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)
- ",500,000" (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)
- "courier service" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- "hammelpeter@outlook.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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: "Mr.Mike Honou" <support@thejarvie.co.za>
Reply-To: hammelpeter@outlook.com
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2022 09:18:42 +0000
Subject: YOUR AWARD WINNING FUND READY NOW.
I refer to the letter I posted to your address but did not hear from you and decided to email you once again to inform you that we happily announce to you the draw of the United Nation Foundation Welfare Support Scheme is an Online sweepstakes International program held in the Month of December, 2022. Your online email account has been picked as one of the lucky winners of 17,500,000.00 Euro (Seventeen Million Two Hundred Thousand Euro) by United Nation Foundation Welfare Support Scheme.
The fund can be remitted to you through this method below:
1. Your fund we be loaded into an ATM Visa Debit Card and deliver to you through express Courier service
2. Your fund can be transferred into your bank account
3. Your fund can be transferred into your Bitcoin Wallet account
NOTE: You are to contact our zonal payment coordinator immediately on his email: (hammelpeter@outlook.com) and Name:Mr.Hammel Peter, with your details for finalization of the transferring of the fund to you as the winner of the fund.
Your Ref: Code is AFWSS-DMP-3999-VOL10X-22
Best Regards,
Mr.Mike Honou.
Payments Committee - European Commission
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Anti-fraud resources:
