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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "overseas subscribers agents" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Francois Delon" <yuda@metal.ui.ac.id>
Reply-To: francois-delon@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 19:15:32 +0700
Subject: The winner of a massive
=?iso-8859-1?Q?=A373million_in_the_EuroMillions_is_still_being_awaited?=207;
A warm greetings to you,
My name is Francois Delon the Euro Millions Lottery Coordinator for
Overseas Subscribers Agents, I have a proposal that will be of great
benefit to the both of us.
The winner of a massive 73million{GBP} in the EuroMillions lottery
jackpot has not come forward to claim his prize, I can make you the winner
only if i can earn your trust.
This transaction is 100% risk free, when I make you the winner we will
split the money after you have claimed it as the winner.
Kindly get back to me for more info if you are interested in this life
changing transaction.
See the below link for more details.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/winner-73million-euromillions-lottery-jackpot-3499594
Sincerely,
Francois Delon
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Anti-fraud resources:
