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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.
- 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.
- +448719742529 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: gigi@bc.cablemas.com
Reply-To: toyotacompancars@w.cn
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2012 14:10:00 -0500
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION FROM TOYOTA AUTOMOBILE COMPANY UK
TOYOTA AUTOMOBILE COMPANY UK
Winning Notification!!!
Congratulations This is to inform you that you have won a BRAND NEW TOYOTA
CAMRY 2012 CAR and a cash prize of (£500,000 00 GBP). The car comes with a
special TOYOTA INSURANCE Cover for one whole year that is till the next
promotion. It also comes with a one year warranty and FREE repairs at any
TOYOTA AUTOMOBILES depot or service station worldwide. Your Batch No:
515944052/166 and Winning No: 1544 make you as one of the lucky winner in
our Charity bonanza.To begin processing of your prize contact:
Email :toyotacompancars@w.cn
TEL+44 871 974 2529
REQUIREMENTS
Name:
Address:
Age:
Sex:
Occupation:
Tel:
City/State:
Country.:
Bank Name:
A/C Number:
Email address:
THE ONLINE COORDINATOR TOYOTA DEPARTMENT.
PROF.CHARLES FERNANDEZ
http://www.toyota.com.cn
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Anti-fraud resources:
