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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:
- "facebookgold@blumail.org" (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.
- +447024042236 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "Facebook Awards" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <facebookgold@blumail.org>
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:08:39 +0200
Subject: Facebook Notification.
Congratulation!!!
YOUR PROFILE HAS BEEN AWARDED A GOLD MEMBERSHIP STATUS ON FACEBOOK.
We happily announce to you and be notified by our organization (http://www.facebook.com) that your profile just completed It's 100% Gold membership status which just qualified you for the donation of USD2,500.000.00 (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars) by Facebook.
You are therefore advised to contact our Executive Secretary for further directives on how to receive your award sum.
Ensure to quote the following information for authentication:
Full Names, Address and qualification numbers to the Executive Sec with your Gold Membership Qualification Numbers: (FB-57-20100, GR-456-76)
Ensure that you quote the following information for clarification.
Contact Person: Mrs. Lori Goler
Facebook Award Officer
facebookgold@blumail.org
Payment would be made to you and other qualified members not later than 7 working days from the date of this notification.
Note: Ensure to keep all winning information strictly confidential to avoid double claims which may lead to disqualification.
Sincerely yours,
Facebook Team
Uk District Branch
Phone: +447024042236
In accordance with our policy and regulations, this notification is dispatched directly to 100% Gold status qualified members.
(http://www.facebook.com) © Copy Right 2012 Facebook . All Rights Reserved
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