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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 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: "Wenzhou Ourvis" (may be fake)
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:26:50 +0200
Subject: You've Won $485,000.00 USD & Range Rover sportage
Dear e-mail User,
Your e-mail address was selected as the Winner of $485,000.00 USD & Range Rover sportage 2009 Model in Wenzhou Ourvis 2010 Lottery,
use the below details to logon into our website and fill the claim form to enable us process your winning
Login with Username and Password Below.
Website: www.wenzvis.eu.pn
Username: MCK2010WIN
Password: 2010RRS
Note: You are to login into our website and fill in the claim form to enable us process your winnings and deliver to you because your winning can not be
process if you do not submite the claim form as the rightful winner.and do not reply to this email as it can not be answer.
The only means of communication is on our website.
Regards.
Wenzhou Ourvis,
2010 Lottery Board.
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Anti-fraud resources:
