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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:
- "million united states dollars" (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)
- "million united state dollars" (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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "barrister" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- "chambers" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
Fraud email example:
From: "Harold Diamond" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ad.seaton@aim.com>
Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2015 11:31:57 +0100
Subject: Email
>From Harold Diamond.
This is a personal email directed to you, I am Harold Diamond, I won Three Hundred and Twenty Six million United States Dollars Mega Millions jackpot, the largest in New York Lottery history,and have voluntarily decided to donate the sum of 1 million United State dollars to you as part of our own charity project to improve the life of 5 unknown lucky individuals all over the world plus family and give back to the local communities.
If you have received this email then you are one of the lucky recipients and all you have to do is to contact Barrister Adam Seaton (Zenit Chambers) with Code: NYMJ6814 via email so that he can send your details to the payout bank for fund disbursement.
You can verify this by visiting the web pages below.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/01/13/retired-principal-wins-326-million-jackpot-in-new-york/21682481/
Good luck,
Harold Diamond.
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Anti-fraud resources:
