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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:
- "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)
- 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.
- +447024035944 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Mark Zuckerberg" <manager@polygrafx.ru>
Reply-To: twelsh@pkuit.com
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:57:46 -0500
Subject: Facebook Award Notification 2012!!!
******************************************
Winning Number: FB/575436172
Batch No: FB/8056490777
Ref No. FB/UK/2012
*******************************************
Dear Winner,
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of 500,000.00 GBP (Five Hundred Thousand Britain Pounds) in the on going Facebook Lottery Jackpot 2012.which is sponsored and organized by Microsoft and Facebook Officials.
For more information Please contact
Name: Mr. Tony Welsh
Email: twelsh@pkuit.com
Phone: +447024035944
Kindly send the following information to him
1. Full Name: ------------------------
2. Contact Address: ----------------
3. Country: --------------------------
4. Age: ------------------------
6. Phone: --------------Fax: -----------
7. Occupation: ------------------------
8. Username/Email Address: ---------------
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program.
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
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Anti-fraud resources:
