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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "from: the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million united state 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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- 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 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.
- facebookpaymentdepartmentunit@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Mr Mark Zuckerberg <markzuckeberg@facebookceo.com>
Reply-To: facebookpaymentdepartmentunit@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:21:35 +0200
Subject: 1NEW MESSAGE FROM THE FACE BOOK WINNINGS DEPARTMENT !!!!
FROM: THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT.
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD.
BATCH NUMBER: 2551236002/244
SERIAL NUMBER: 55643451907
TICKET NUMBER: 5647600545189
CATEGORY: 2ND
The Entire Face book Team are very happy to inform you that your name
appear on
the FACE BOOK ONLINE LOTTERY PROGRAM 2012 and we are giving out the
total sum of
$1,000,000.00 (ONE MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS) which is what you
have just won.
Your name was selected in a raffle that was made for the FACE BOOK ONLINE
LOTTERY PROGRAM 2012 with the lucky number (23456895410) so we need your fast
response so that we can proceed with the claim process of your winnings.
Your name was selected by Mr Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of Face book
(Founder & amp
Chief Executive Officer ) The promotion was made to make all face book user to
benefit from the profit the company made.
Face book is the first and ever largest means of meeting both old and
new friend.
The promo was done to serve as a means of appreciation to visitors on our site
and also to help people to fight off poverty and to maintain a good
standard of
living.
Kindly contact Mrs. Lisa Williams the General secretary of the FACE BOOK TEAM
and appointed as your claims officer via this email
(facebookpaymentdepartmentunit@gmail.com) immediately with the following
information about you below:
Full Name:
Residential Address:
Private Mobile Number:
Age:
Occupation:
Marital Status:
Sex:
City:
State:
Country:
Zip/Postal Code:
As soon as she gets your email with all the information stated above she will
tell you on what next to do as regards the claiming and receiving of your
winnings of USD$1,000,000.00
Thank you and More Congratulations.
Agent Name: Greg Holmes for CDAA
Get some Zero paid Gear FBI SCAM PROTECTED
Note: For security reasons and due to the mix-up of some numbers and names, we
ask that you keep this notification strictly from public notice until
your claim
has been processed and your money remitted. This is part of our security
protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by non-participants of
this program. BE WARNED
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Anti-fraud resources:
