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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.
- 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.
- jenniferpperez@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "SUMMER LOTTERY PRIZE AWARD- FROM PABLO FERNANDEZ" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jenniferbrownperez@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2010 19:21:09 +0200
Subject: SUMMER SWEEK STAKE LOTTERY
SUMMER LOTTERY PRIZE AWARD
EL-GORDO LOTTERY PROMOTION
AVA. C/ Montera 34, 4º - 10, 28013 Madrid. España
REF NO: MMIL/3762367224/10 BATCH NO: 2177/001010/MMD
DEAR: WINNER
You have won 815,960.00 Euros; we are pleased to inform you the release result of the ELGORDO LOTTERY SUMMER SWEEK STAKE SPANISH INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM held on 10th of May 2010 which your name was included to be lucky winner.
To begin your claim please fill the information and send to your payment processing agent direct Mrs Jennifer Perez email: jenniferpperez@gmail.com
Name:----------------------------------------------------
Address:------------------------------------------------
Telephone:--------------------------------------------
Occupation:------------------------------------------
Age :----------------------------------------------------
Bank Name:------------------------------------------
Bank Address:--------------------------------------
Please complete these details and email to: Email: jenniferpperez@gmail.com
Thanks
SN PABLO FERNANDEZ
EL-GORDO LOTTERY PROMOTION S.A
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Anti-fraud resources:
