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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.
- 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.
- +447031748924 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: FACEBOOK AWARDS PROMOTIONS CENTER ENGLAND <boardlinkclams@live.co.za>
Reply-To: josephinefitzpatrick@w.cn
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2011 12:16:29 -0800 (PST)
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Fw=3A_CONGRATULATION_YOU_HAVE_WON_GBP=A3820=2C000=2E00_WIT?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?H_YOUR_REF=2EFB/968/09_PLEASE_SEE_ATTACHED_DOCUMENT_FILES_?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?FOR_FURTHER_STEP_HOW_TO_CLAIM_THE_PRIZE?=
CONGRATULATION
YOU HAVE WON GBP£820,000.00 (EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND GREAT BRITAIN POUNDS ONLY) YOUR E-MAIL I.D. EMERGED AS ONE OF THE TEN FINAL RECIPIENTS OF A CASH GRANT/DONATION OF (GBP£820,000.00) POUNDS FROM THE FACE BOOK / YAHOO MESSENGER CHAT PROMOTION AWARD ENGLAND E-MAIL DRAW, FOR THE CLAIM OF YOUR PRICE YOU ARE TO CONTACT THE BELOW INFORMATION VIA E-MAIL WITH YOUR REF.FB/968/09. PLEASE SEE ATTACHED DOCUMENT FILE FOR FURTHER STEP HOW TO CLAIM THE PRIZE.
BEST REGARDS
DR.MRS.JOSEPHINE FITZPATRICK
TEL: +44-703 174 8924 / +44-44-703 174 7620 / FAX: +44-844 774 1185
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