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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:
- "courier service" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- 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.
- elliot_davis@aol.com (AOL; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "Florida Lottery Programme ©" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <elliot_davis@aol.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:44:48 -0400
Subject: Congratulations You Are a Winner
AMERICAN LOTTERY PROGRAMME
Website: http://www.flalottery.com/inet/GameWinnersMain.do
IOWA,USA
Attention: Sir / Madam,
Congratulations on your winning.
All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web
Site through computer ballot system extracted from over
100,000 companies and individuals. This promotion takes
Place annually.
Your email address attached to ticket number: 56475600545
188 with serial number: 5388/02 drew the lucky numbers
31-6-26-13-35-7, which subsequently won you the lottery in
the second category.
You have therefore won us from the lottery $500,000 dollars as
your winning prize.
You are required to forward the following details to help
Facilitate the processing of your certificate and the
Release of your winnings.
1. Full names.
2. Residential address.
3. Phone number.
4. A scanned identification of yourself sent via email
5. Occupation.
You are advised to forward this information as soon as
Possible to enable us attend to your file.
Please note that your funds have been deposited safely in
our offshore payment office in Europe and your information
will be forwarded to them before they can release your
Winnings. You are also to choose the mode that you want to
collect your funds:
PAYMENT OPTIONS.
I. Travel down to personally collect it from our agent in United Kingdom
II. This is for those who can not travel we will process the winnings
and then package and send it via courier service but you will
have to PAY FOR THE SERVICES.
You are to contact:
Pastor Elliot Davis
Financial Agent (USA)
Email Contact: elliot_davis@aol.com
Once again congratulations.
Sincerely,
Mr.Rahman Finsoc
PROTOCOLS AND GRAND (FOR
OVERSEAS LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL.)
NB: PLEASE INDICATE A PAYMENT OPTION
Website: http://www.flalottery.com/inet/GameWinnersMain.do
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Anti-fraud resources:
