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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:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "00,000.00" (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)
- "cheque " (Beware of any scheme that involves cashing checks or money orders and then wiring a portion of the funds somewhere - you'll be liable for the entire amount if the checks or money orders turn out to be fake, even after you have received and forwarded cash. If it's a lottery prize, remember that real lotteries do not pay large prizes by check. They wire the money directly to your bank account and you do not pay for that. Many scammers promise a large check only in order to then demand payment of courier fees for a fake courier service. )
- 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: "DIRECTOR" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <official22mail@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 00:14:35 +0100
Subject: RE: Important News About Your Faccebook Account
RE: Important News About Your Faccebook Account
This is to notify you that you have won $500,000.00 (five hundred thousand dollars) in our online social networks winnings/grants in which profile accounts are picked randomly by computerized balloting, powered by the Internet. Your Facebook online profile was among five such social networks profile accounts chosen for this quarter.
************************************************
Kindly contact your claims agent for him to guide you on the procedures to claim youre won funds.
Please, fill the information below and contact the regional claims agent with the filled information:.
Contact the transfer department
MR EDWARD K. SMITH
CONGRATULATIONS IN ADVANCE.
1.Full Names:
2.Nationality:
3.Age:
4.Sex:
5.Contact Address:
6.Telephone Number:
7.Occupation:
8.Marital Status:
9.Email:
If you have any relative in Canada i can meet with him and take him to Royal Bank of Canada to sign off your cheque payment without any delay, i am presently in Canada doing some official job for 3 working days so that i can help you.
For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you.
Yours Faithfully,
Mr.Bellingham Frankly
Tel: 7031968023
Facebook Member Team.
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