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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:
- "dr.wen_promo@ymail.com" (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!
Fraud email example:
From: "BLACKBERRY ASIAPROMO" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dr.wen_promo@ymail.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:33:35 +0800
Subject: HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR to you and your family
BLACKBERRY ASIAPROMO
PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT.
REF NO.REF:ORG/74-A0802742009
BATCH NUMBER : AS67/065/ ALP /CL
Dear Winner,
You are a winner of the BLACKBERRY ASIAPROMO online program that
was held. You have been approved to claim a sum of USD 50,000.
Your e-mail address was attached to ticket number: 56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers:21-32-42-46-60-76, and a bonus number of (17) which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of USD 50,000 in cash credited to file KMU/9023118308/03.
You are to revert back to us for further clarifications with the under listed.
FULL NAME:...........................................................
AGE:..........................................................................
TEL:............................................................................
FULL ADDRESS:......................................................
NATIONALITY:........................................................
MARITAL STATUS:.................................................
OCCUPATION:.........................................................
Congratulations once more from all members and staff of this program.
Yours Truly,
Dr Wen Loong Lee
(Online Co-Ordinator)
Email: dr.wen_promo@ymail.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
