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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.
Fraud email example:
From: Lottery coordinator <ecobankbenin761@yahoo.de>
Reply-To: western70@qq.com
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 04:47:23 -0600
Subject: PAYMENT NOTICE
CONFIRM YOUR PRIZE!!!
This email is to notify you that you have won an Award Sum of USD$2.850,000.00 Dollars in Euro million email lottery held on the 10/12/2014.
Please contact the Payment Director with your winning info: REF NUM. (No: GFC8110/3740K) BATCH NUM. (HOL04-R591/XB301) WINING NUM.(NJP8182-131Y),Ticket Number: (0031-4365021) Lucky Number SPL (501/0267)
Kindly send the following to the below contact for easy identification/timely consideration:
1. Full Name:
2. Direct phone:
3. Date of Birth / Age:
4. Occupation:
5. Current Address (P.o Box not acceptable)
By contacting:-
Contact Name: DR.BANKOLE WILLIAMS
Email: western70@qq.com
Telephone: +22998373457
The Euro million email lottery is lawfully sponsored by the Microsoft Corporation and is registered and protected by the Benelux trademark law.
Please note that the validity period is subject to the very first contact to the payment director.
Faithfully.
Mrs.Joyce Michael
Lottery coordinator
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Anti-fraud resources:
