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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:
- "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 mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447031886012 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- 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.
- mobilenokia2010@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: =?koi8-r?Q?=BFNOKIA_MOBILE_PROMOTION?= <info@bod.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: mobilenokia2010@aim.com
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:14:52 +0400 (MSD)
Subject:
¿NOKIA MOBILE PROMOTION
2nd Floor Berkley Square House,
Berkley Square London,
W1J 6BD London,
United Kingdom.
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual
final draws held by NOKIA MOBILE UK.(RANDOM EMAIL SELECTION PROGRAMME
WORLD-WIDE).
In line with the commemorating event marking our 42nd anniversary we
rolled out over 100,000.000.00 (One Hundred Million Great British Pounds)
for our 42nd Anniversary Draws Which thereby won you £1 Million Great
British
Pounds. The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email
addresses
from an exclusive list of 50,000 E-mail addresses of individuals and
corporate
bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the
internet.
CONGRATULATIONS NOKIA HAS MADE YOU A MILLIONAIRE
You are to contact the promotions manager with details below for further
claims processing.
=============================
(CONTACT PROMOTION MANAGER)
Name: Mr Mark Cole
Email: mobilenokia2010@aim.com
Tel: +447031886012
Fax: +447092865408
=============================
Provide him with these following details with which he will begin the
processing of your winnings.
1.Name in full:
2.Address:
3.Nationality:
4.Age:
5.Occupation:
6.Phone No:
7.Present Country:
8.Fax [optional]:
9.Email address:
10.Sex:
Regards,
Mrs. sarah Peters
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Anti-fraud resources:
