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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)
- "very confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a 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 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.
- info.sipclaimssdeptt@yahoo.com.cn (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Patricia Angello." <pat@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: info.sipclaimssdeptt@yahoo.com.cn
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 08:30:52 -0200
Subject:
On behalf of the VW Motors Email Lottery and from the desk of the
claims department, we gladly notify you of your lucky win of a total
of £1,050,000 GBP (ONE MILLION & FIFTY THOUSAND BRITISH POUNDS).
your email address was extracted from our electronic email extraction
system and attached to ticket number VJETTA-UK-VP990003-M4GA with draw
number P93VWJ which consequently won you in the 2nd category prize.
We also advise that you keep your winning information very
confidential as our security policy demands to avoid double
claims/impersonation and unwarranted abuse of this program by some
individuals.
Kindly send us the below information:
1. NAME IN FULL:
2. ADDRESS (IN FULL):
3. NATIONALITY:
4. AGE:
5. SEX
6. OCCUPATION (POSITION HELD):
7. HOME PHONE & MOBILE NUMBER:
Customer Service Unit
Mr. Eddie Goodman.
Email: info.sipclaimssdeptt@yahoo.com.cn
All winning must be claimed not later than one Week of Acknowledgment.
Yours in service,
Mrs. Patricia Angello.
(Programs & Events).
Material Copyright © 2012 The VW Co. Ltd.
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