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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:
- "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "hundred thousand united states dollars" (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)
- "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)
- "johnwilliams1313@yahoo.cn" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Mary Benson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johnwilliams1313@yahoo.cn>
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:01:44 +0800
Subject: Honda-Automobile INTERNATIONAL e-mail Lottery..
This is to inform you that your e-mail address have won you a prize Money of (600,000.00) six Hundred Thousand United States dollars In the Honda-Automobile INTERNATIONAL e-mail draw for sponsoring south Africa 2010 World cup, we collected all the e-mail addresses of the People who where active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo /msn and various micro-soft window users, we only selected 10 e-mails as Our winners, through electronic balloting system without the winner applying.
You are to contact our claims officer
Name: John Williams
E-mail: johnwilliams1313@yahoo.cn
You have to fill in the below information for your claims
1. FULL NAMES: ______
2. ADDRESS: ______
3. SEX: ______
4. AGE: ______
5. OCCUPATION: ______
6. TELEPHONE NUMBER: ______
8. STATE: ______
9. COUNTRY: ______
Thank you and accept my hearty congratulations once again!!!
Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Mary Benson
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Anti-fraud resources:
