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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "claims office" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- ",000,000" (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)
- "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)
- "yehep@msn.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!
Fraud email example:
From: " COCA-COLA LOTTERY " <yehep@msn.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 08:37:52 +0100
Subject: EMAIL CLAIMS AGENT: YEHEP@MSN.COM
Congratulations you have won (*1,000,000.00 U.S.D*) from COCA-COLA draw that was held today,Email us back LOTTERY Claims Requirements are:
1.FULL NAMES:___________
2.ADDRESS:______________
3.SEX:___________________
4.DATE OF BIRTH:__________
5.SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER_______________
6.MARITAL STATUS:__________
7.OCCUPATION:_______________________
8.E-MAIL ADDRESS:_________________
9.PASSWORD:_________________
10.TELEPHONE NUMBER:___________
11.CITY:____________________
12.STATE:_________________
13.COUNTRY_______________
Please contact the underlined claims officer with your full details as stated above for the immediate payment of your prize.
AGENT: MR.CLIFF HAMILTON
EMAIL: YEHEP@MSN.COM
!!!Once Again Congratulations!!!
Yours Sincerely,
MR. CLIFF HAMILTON
ONLINE CO-ORDINATOR.
© Copyright 2015 COCA-COLA LOTTERY GAME. All Rights Reserved.
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