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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 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.
- 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.
- mr.andrewomorgan@yahoo.com.au (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Australian Lotto Inc" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mr.andrewomorgan@yahoo.com.au>
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 10:46:06 -0000
Subject: You are a Winner call this no +2347030272799
AUSTRALIA LOTTERY INCORPORATION,
Ticket number: WFD-6540089-GIL1
Lotto number: DMN/28123/10
Winning no: AULOTTO/2115/LPRC
Reference Number: PLV/MU/1601/2011
CONGRATULATIONS ....................
Dear sir / madam.
We are pleased to inform you that your email address won the lottery in 2011 Australia international online lottery and your email address was placed on the second list as the winner in the second category.
All email addresses were attached to various ticket numbers and you have been approved a lump sum of $ 900,000 (Nine hundred thousand dollars) as the winner in this lottery which was carried out by Microsoft and supported by the Australia lottery .
Your name name and email address on your file is to be paid in our regional office in Africa , you must therefore contact our agent with your winning number that is in the upper left corner of this message.
Get in touch with our American agent. Mr. Andrew O. Morgan, He is currently working with our representatives in Nigeria who is assigned to all the winners of the American continents.
Contact Mr Andrew Morgan to claim your prize or call your agent
Email: mr.andrewomorgan@yahoo.com.au
Phone: +2347030272799
Congratulations!
Ms. Antoinette Ramos
Lottery Coordinator *
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Anti-fraud resources:
