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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "intl.coke-reward@live.co.uk" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dir. Paul Weidner" <info@news.co.uk>
Reply-To: intl.coke-reward@live.co.uk
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2011 10:00:22 +0000
Subject:
--
©2011.Coca-Cola Great Britain
1 Queen Caroline Street
Hammersmith
London
W6 9HQ
United Kingdom.
REF:CJAN-01-07-561J3
You have won the sum of £750,000.00 (Great British Pounds) from The Coca-Cola
Company UK©,I wish to announce you as one of the 2nd lucky winners in our
INTERNATIONAL ONLINE PROMOTIONAL BONANZA sweepstakes draw held on the 27th of
February 2011.Your email address emerged along side 2 others as a 2nd category
winner in this year's Annual Online Promotion Draw.
Requirements:
1. Name:
2. Address:
3. Age:
4. Sex:
5. Occupation:
6. Telephone Number:
7. Country of Residence:
Kindly Contact:
Mr. Mark Osbern
TEL: +44 757 401 3367
FAX: +85 230 176 776
EMAIL: intl.coke-reward@live.co.uk
(Monday - Friday 09:00 - 17:00)
Be further advised to maintain the strictest level of confidentiality until
the end of proceedings to circumvent problems associated with fraudulent
claims.This is a part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming
and unwarranted abuse of this program
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Yours faithfully,
Dir. Paul Weidner
Online Sweepstakes Coordinator
©Copyright 2010
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Anti-fraud resources:
