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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million pounds" (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)
- "dawesd@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.
- 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.
- +447045703623 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: Dawes <infome@yahoo.org>
Reply-To: dawesd@yahoo.cn
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:12:12 -0500
Subject:
Dear friend
This is a personal email directed to you. I am Dave Dawes, my fiancee and
I won a Jackpot Lottery of £101 million pounds ($156 million) in
October, and have voluntarily decided to donate the sum of £1 million
pounds ($1.56 million) to you as part of our own charity project to
improve the lot of 5 unknown lucky individuals all over the world plus 15
close friends and family. If you have received this email then you are
one of the lucky recipients and all you have to do is get back to us so
that we can send your details to the payout bank.
You can verify this by visiting the web pages below.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8820740/101m-lottery-jackpot-winners-Dave-and-Angela-Dawes-to-give-millions-to-friends-and-family.html
Best of luck,
Dave Dawes.
Email: dawesd@yahoo.cn
Tel: +44-704-570-3623
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Anti-fraud resources:
