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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:
- "hundred thousand great british 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)
- "claimsdeptlondon@qq.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- "claimsdeptlondon@qq.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!
- 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.
- +448719159346 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: Nokia Mobile Phone Company <test@elrizky.net>
Reply-To: claimsdeptlondon@qq.com
Date: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 22:33:16 +0530
Subject: NOKIA UPDATE
Nokia Company Head Office
International Remittance Dept;
Berkley Square, London WIJ 6BD
United Kingdom.
Office Number +448719159346
Dear Lucky Winner
We are pleased to inform you that your email address has won an Award in the Nokia Company Compensation Award as organized by Nokia Company United Kingdom.
Nokia Company Randomly selected 50 email addresses through a computer ballot system to receive an award of Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds and one of Apple Laptop each as a part of our for-profit philanthropic wing promotion.
The online award draws was conducted from an exclusive list of over 25,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the web. No tickets were sold. After the automated computer ballot, your e-mail address emerged as one of five winners in the category A with the following:
Award Reference code:(Nokia568A2014)
File number :(a00245)
Awards must be claimed by the email owner only, not later than 4 weeks from the day of notification Send your complete personal information with your Award Ref. and File no. to us to enable us process your claim. Please kindly forward your full information to this email id: (claimsdeptlondon@qq.com)
1. Full Name:
2. Country:
3. Address:
4. Mobile Number:
5. Marital Status:
6. Occupation:
7. Sex:
8. Age:
9. Email Id:
Ensure that you send all your information to (claimsdeptlondon@qq.com) to enable us responds back immediately,
Regards
Dr. John Mark
Tel: +448719159346
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Anti-fraud resources:
