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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:
- "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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- 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.
- dadawes@hotmail.com (Hotmail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "DAVE & ANGELA DAWES" <dadawes@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: drfranciswisdom1@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2012 18:39:56 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Congratulation you have won
=?iso-8859-1?Q?=A31_million_pound_lottery_jackpot_from_=A3101_million_lot?=
tery jackpot winners Dave and Angela Dawes.
This is a personal email directed to you.
I am Dave Dawes, I and my fiance won a Jackpot
Lottery of 101 million pounds ($156 million), 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 15 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 with 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:dadawes@hotmail.com
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This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.
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Anti-fraud resources:
